Along Avenue Patton, west of Angers, it is not the financial storm that shakes Atos, but rather the construction equipment and their noisy ballet. Here is built “the factory of the future”, the one which should allow the Angers site of the IT giant to confirm its position as European leader in 2027. This is where the supercomputers of Eviden, the branch specializing in digital, cloud, big data and cybersecurity. Machines that now count in exaflops, executing a billion billion calculations per second. These high performance computers work all over the world to solve extremely complex equations in fields as varied as meteorology, nuclear research, health, finance and defense. Calculating beasts sold for between 10 and 50 million euros each.
A dizzying technological leap on this site where the first computer of the French brand Bull – the Level 64 – was manufactured in 1973. The computer company employed more than 3,000 employees in Angers, before collapsing and landing in the hands of Atos, in 2014. In 2019, the group and its then CEO, Thierry Breton, inaugurated the testing center there ” global “ supercomputers.
Dominique Rouger, 52, was hired as “Java developer” in 2000. Since 2008, he has been a staff representative (CFDT) and takes a detailed look at the situation of the company that employs him: “Of course, it worries people, but we continue to have orders. We work by trying to obscure a little of what is happening around us. » Behind the metal lace facade which evokes the tree structure of the machines manufactured here, rumors have been circulating for months among the 250 employees. “Recently, the director spoke to calm the climate and reassure people”, confirms the union delegate. The renunciation of Airbus, which studied the possibility of buying Eviden, still shook the staff. “We got a little cold, there was a reassuring side to staying in a large group. We are really waiting for something concrete now,” he adds.
“No solution”
On the other side of the Angevin conurbation, in the former slate mining town of Trélazé, the other Atos factory is experiencing the same wait. The approximately 180 employees provide outsourcing services on behalf of large companies and no one wants, or cannot, imagine a sudden collapse of the IT giant. “In the short term, there is no concernsays Thierry Pouplin, 50-year-old project manager and CFDT union delegate. We still remain very cautious because it has been changing every two weeks for two years. Rather, we feel annoyance at the lack of a solution. »
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