In May 2021, the government shared its cloud strategy, as part of the Plan « France Relance ». The Cloud is the essential brick for the digital transition that is desired for businesses and government because a large part of the services provided online goes through this technology. A study from KPMG estimated that the cloud market would be valued at 560B euros in 2030.
This strategy involves several areas such as digital sovereignty, data protection, and technological innovation.
After this announcement, multiple partnerships were created. French businesses providing infrastructure and American businesses providing the software layers teamed up to create what the government called Trusted Cloud (“Cloud de confiance”). According to some members of the government, the GAFAM offer the best technical solutions and French businesses have to work with them.
Last September, at the inauguration of a new OVHCloud data center in Strasbourg, the policy shifted a bit in favor of French cloud providers. The National Strategy will go through them. The Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, Bruno Le Maire, and the Minister Delegate for the Digital Economy and Telecommunications, Jean-Noël Barrot, acknowledged that digital sovereignty would have to go through infrastructure and software.
An aid was announced to help French cloud providers pass the security certification (SecNumCloud) that, up until now, only the biggest providers would afford.
A committee, called Trusted Digital (“Numérique de Confiance”), is created to encourage synergies between French cloud providers. It aims to create services that would compete with what the GAFAM offer.
Reference:
Le gouvernement annonce sa stratégie nationale pour le Cloud | numerique.gouv.fr