Edge Computing platforms bring new answers to European and French companies.
The emergence of new cloud platforms, called Edge computing, which process data close to where they are produced, offer French and European players an opportunity to reposition themselves on the cloud market, which has been said too often he was acquired by the giants of the field.
With their cutting-edge skills in this area and their capacity for innovation, European companies have the assets to develop and promote Edge solutions that are simultaneously trustworthy, agile, efficient, disconnected and sovereign.
The history of the cloud has yet to be written
“Games are made for the cloud”, “we can’t catch up with the GAFAM”, “it is useless to fight on this ground”… the defeatist speeches ended up convincing the public that the cloud was the business of hyperscalers, these American or Chinese giants who have built global IT processing infrastructures in which they host our data, our images, our identities without anyone really knowing what they are doing with them.
Their reputation as essential is such that many large French and European companies have resigned themselves to entrusting them with the hosting of their data and applications. Some of them are moved, worried about national or European sovereignty, but the initiatives to regain this sovereignty very often remain wishful thinking. And despite the existence of effective national solutions, French health data, consolidated in the Health Data Hub, should be hosted in an American cloud. As for the information from the 2024 Olympics, it will be processed in a Chinese cloud…
What if, instead of looking at the finger pointing at it, we finally looked at the Moon? Too often, when we talk about cloud computing, we talk about it as a solution with vague outlines. However, far from being a pure concept, this computing in the cloud designates a set of particularly complex hardware and software technologies. The cloud today is data centers filled with servers that process and store data; they are networks that interconnect these centers all around the planet; it is software “stacks”, the stacks, which make these systems work; these are software applications that are used on demand and by subscription, in “as a service” mode, all for a bank to record your expenses by credit card, for your hotel reservation to be transmitted to the hotelier, that the factory launches the production of the parts ordered, that the planes have the necessary information to ensure the flights, etc.
There is not one cloud model, but a multitude of solutions that adapt to the specific needs of each in terms of data processing and storage. And this cloud can be public (shared hosting with a provider without space reserved for a customer), private (specific to a company, an organization) or hybrid (combining the two previous ones). Today, the public cloud is largely dominated by hyperscalers. Not only have they anticipated and made major investments, but they have largely benefited from the political (multi-annual plans) and financial (massive public procurement) support of their respective governments.
The Edge, an opportunity to regain control
Unlike the centralized public cloud, the Edge responds to data processing issues that require proximity: connected objects and other sensors such as, for example, video cameras now required in many activities, 5G platforms, factories, shopping centres, all sites where a large part of the data is processed locally, etc. And in this area, the games are far from over.
The emergence of edge computing platforms makes it possible to redistribute the cards. With cutting-edge skills and determined not to leave the field of Edge to hyperscalers, European cloud players have designed solutions that are both technologically innovative, reversible and financially attractive for users. They will no longer have to resort to hyperscalers “by default”, because they will find a rich offer, adapted to their needs, from trusted European players. They can deploy, operate and control their Edge platform from start to finish and very easily. And they can change it if they are not satisfied! They are not subject to “vendor lock-in”, that is to say they are not captive to a supplier. This independence is far from trivial. Indeed, hyperscalers currently practice significant annual price increases – up to 30% – that users can only suffer, because the cost of a change of platform would be totally prohibitive.
The Edge thus gives Europe the opportunity to regain some sovereignty over this segment of the cloud market, critical if ever there was one. At the same time transparent, reversible, economically interesting, it has all the advantages of the public cloud without having its disadvantages.