French cloud computing: defending data sovereignty

In order to promote French economic development, promote innovation and improve competitiveness, December 14, 2009, the French president announced the launch of the "future investment plan." The investment project aims to promote economic development in the infrastructure and related research and development areas, the total plan to invest 350 billion euros to promote the French cutting-edge technology innovation. EUR 350 billion deals mainly with 5 strategic priority industries in France, including higher education, scientific research, industry and small and medium-sized enterprises, sustainable development and the digital economy. In France's "Future investment Plan" framework, the French government to protect its cloud computing data security, the integration of the French digital economy, the main players to create a sovereign cloud computing project in France.

Currently, the issue of nationality of cloud computing service providers has become particularly sensitive to data sovereignty. The French government is also troubled by the current state of cloud computing services providers, mainly from the United States. As French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said in January 2010: "I hope this new infrastructure will benefit from the ' Future investment plan ', and it is absolutely necessary for us to develop French-style and European-style cloud computing." North America, which now occupies this market, has become a formidable challenge to our economic competitiveness and, more seriously, to our sustainable development and sovereignty. ”

In order to compete and contend with the world's leading cloud computing service providers (including IBM, HP, Microsoft, Amazib, etc.), and to evade the famous American Patriot Act, the French government eventually built its national cloud computing project. In April 2012, the French government formally implemented the project, through the National Information Fund to invest 75 million euros, and Orange and Thales company set up a joint venture, of which Orange accounted for 44.4% of the shares, Thales accounted for 22.2%, the French government accounted for 33.3% per cent, Total investment of 225 million euros. Orange Company, as the largest shareholder, invests 100 million euros. The project is expected to create 1000 new jobs directly.

Orange and Thales's expertise in security, data tracking and credibility will be in the project. The company will provide a range of "infrastructure as a Service" (IaaS), including providing cloud computing processing, storage, etc. on demand. At the same time, the company will use open source code to develop the corresponding software, encourage openness, interactivity and standardization, and provide a higher level of security.

In fact, the project started in 2010 and was originally an agreement signed between the French Ministry of Finance and Orange, Thales and Dassault Systems, and the Dassault System company withdrew from the project at the end of 2011 on the grounds that the project was uncompetitive in the current environment.

To further introduce competition, in May 2012, the French government began a second national cloud computing investment project. The government has invested € 75 million through the French National Information Fund (SFR), which has a joint venture with French operators, Bull, and the SFR, which has a 47% per cent stake and 33% and 20% per cent for the French government and bull respectively. The cloud-computing project is designed for government, business and public institutions to provide open, secure, trustworthy and environmentally friendly cloud computing information services to their needs. According to SFR and Bull, the project's final investment is also 225 million euros, which will create 400 new jobs directly.

According to IDC, 2011-2015 years, private and public institutions will create 14 million jobs globally in terms of cloud computing investment, with 189,000 jobs in France. With the development of cloud computing industry, the issue of data sovereignty is becoming more and more focus. In the French cloud computing project, Thales and Orange have been emphasizing their "trusted infrastructure" stance, including data protection and traceability, and the project's pull on employment has become a secondary factor. France is one of the countries with the most stringent data protection in the world. The development of cloud computing industry has brought great challenges to its data protection work, but France has not lowered the demand, but actively studied the corresponding countermeasures. It was also due to the consideration of data sovereignty and data security that the French Government decided to give the infrastructure construction to real French companies.

The launch of the French National Cloud Computing project and the emphasis on data sovereignty and data security should be a revelation to the development of cloud computing industry in China.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)