The government relaunches its famous “sovereign cloud” project to get out of American dependence

The Digital minister Clara Chappaz announced a call for projects to strengthen the cloud offer in France. The government wants to revive its sovereign cloud project, to get out of the overwhelming American domination in the sector.

The famous sovereign cloud returns to the political agenda. The minister in charge of digital and artificial intelligence, Clara Chappaz, announced during an “evening of digital sovereignty”, the launch of a call for projects ” To strengthen the cloud offer ». According to her, ” It should make it possible to build French solutions, based on the latest advances, in particular by including AI. These solutions can be adopted, out of conviction and for their performance, by companies and citizens “Says the minister. This call for projects should be fueled by ” ambitious funding ».

Clara Chappaz took the opportunity to present a new Digital Sovereign Observatory, created ” To draw up a lucid inventory of the current situation ». She underlines that 70 to 90 % of the current cloud offer in France is dominated by American actors, the government therefore aims to launch a movement to overthrow this situation.

A project long pushed by Emmanuel Macron

Let us recall that in 2021, faced with technical and commercial disabilities to set up a real sovereign cloud, the government had adopted a “confidence cloud” program, a sort of conglomerate between American and French actors, which aimed to provide American technologies while guaranteeing French governance and showcase. This model was to offer better transparency on the exploitation of data vis-à-vis their customer.

Several subsidiaries were planned at the time, with partnerships announced between Orange, Microsoft and Capgemini, as well as a marriage between Google and Thales to offer these solutions. Their baby, S3NS, has also started to be adopted by French companies.

Google and Thales have highlighted their subsidiary for four years. // Source: S3NS

An awareness after Donald Trump’s “silly” war

Or, « yesterday’s allies are not always our enemies “Declares Michel Paulin, former CEO of OVH and future president of the strategic committee for digital trust, during this evening. The coming to power of Donald Trump in the United States and the trade war ” silly – thus qualified by the minister – immediately launched by the sulphurous president revived the desire to go rider in France.

Questioned by Numerama, Clara Chappaz replies that the confidence cloud remains topical and ” Always act as certification for French companies ». As for the sovereign cloud, this is a current response, ” Faced with the recent increase in companies’ requests seeking to have cloud solutions In France and Europe ». In other words, an awareness. The means have not yet been announced, but a ” Beautiful envelope »Out of the Relance France 2030 plan should be granted.