Since 2021, the national cloud strategy has been structured around three pillars. The first concerns the protection of data of companies, administrations and citizens. Based on the SecNumCloud visa issued by ANSSI, the “trusted cloud” label guarantees that cloud service providers offer the highest level of protection both technically and legally.
Second pillar, the so-called “cloud at the center” doctrine is aimed exclusively at public actors. Its founding principle is simple: the cloud is the default mode of hosting and production of state digital services. Each digital product handling sensitive data must be hosted on the State’s internal cloud or on a SecNumCloud certified commercial cloud.
Finally, France’s industrial policy must respond to sovereignty issues by supporting the development of a national ecosystem of cloud service providers. With a budget of 1.8 billion euros over four years, including 667 million euros in public funding, this support plan for the sector should enable French players to scale up critical technologies. and to move on to disruptive technologies such as edge computing.
Building the future of the cloud
Coming this Friday, March 22 to close the Strasbourg Digital Meetings, organized by Cigref, Marina Ferrari, Secretary of State for Digital, announced three new measures to complement the national strategy for the cloud. The first is known because it is the PIEEC (Important Project of Common European Interest) dedicated to the cloud, unveiled in December and officially launched on Thursday March 21.
With a total budget of 2.6 billion euros, this new European Union program aims to develop the future generation of cloud and edge infrastructures. Until 2031, it will finance 19 projects in the fields of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0, health, energy and autonomous driving. Orange, Atos and Amadeus are among the participating companies.
Support for the French software ecosystem
The second system, Franco-French, aims to support the French software ecosystem, namely SMEs and startups which develop solutions in SaaS mode or PaaS platforms. A program supports them on the path to SecNumCloud qualification. After a batch of 21 projects selected a year ago, this support program selected 27 new companies. The collaborative specialists Wimi, Jalios and Jamespot or the operator Clever Cloud are among the first beneficiaries.
Finally, Marina Ferrari announced the launch of a new call for projects as part of France 2030. It has two purposes. Candidate projects must meet the needs of administrations in terms of trusted cloud. It is also about strengthening the offering of cloud services in the era of generative AI.
While large language models (LLM) require significant computing power, the call for projects intends to support French cloud providers in this AI services market. The development of joint projects is encouraged in order to create consortia bringing together players from both the cloud and AI.
AI-generated visual, Microsoft Designer