“French tech companies are a major asset in the implementation of a real digital sovereignty strategy”

Tribune. On May 17, 2021, Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, accompanied by Cédric O, Secretary of State for Digital, and the Minister of Transformation and the Public Service, presented the new national cloud strategy (cloud computing).

It is, first of all on behalf of the “Digital sovereignty”, establish a label “Trusted cloud” which would strengthen protection against US extraterritorial law (Cloud Act, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – FISA) while allowing the use of “Foreign licensed technologies”, de facto those of Gafam and more precisely, those of Google and Microsoft.

The next step is to forcefully impose “trusted cloud” solutions by doing so, through a policy. “Cloud at the center”, the “Default hosting method for state digital services”, all within a migration period of twelve months.

We, young developers working in digital technology, can only support the construction of French and European digital sovereignty. But the strategy presented by the Ministry of the Economy seems highly problematic to us for several reasons.

Article reserved for our subscribers Read also The challenge of digital sovereignty

According to the minister, France and Europe would be deprived of human and technological resources in terms of the cloud, so that it would be appropriate today, as an admission of capitulation, to rely on the Gafams. This would be to ignore French cloud players such as OVHcloud, Clever Cloud, 3DS Outscale, Scaleway, Oodrive, Rapid.Space or Ikoula. These excellent companies now employ several thousand people, have found customers at nearly half of the CAC 40, and are winning the trust of a growing number of players in France and Europe.

A great boon for the Gafams

These French companies therefore constitute a major asset in the implementation of a real digital sovereignty strategy. However, the ministerial communication only mentions it at the margin, preferring to give pride of place to Gafam. Ignoring the commitment of these French cloud players, it is necessary to wonder: is the government only at their side?

But not content with denigrating the ecosystem of the French cloud, the ministerial doctrine actually amounts to bringing it down in full flight. It de facto amounts to closing access to public markets to a large part of French players – at least initially, given the cumbersome imposed by the “Cloud of confidence” label and the migration period of twelve months.

You have 55.09% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.