Paris (AFP)

The French groups Orange and Capgemini have reached an unprecedented agreement with Microsoft to be able to offer the American giant's "cloud" technology from infrastructures placed under their exclusive control, beyond the reach of American extraterritorial laws, they announced. Thursday in a statement.

The two French groups will create a joint company, "Bleu", which will offer its customers, and in particular the State and public services, Microsoft's cloud solutions, from its own infrastructures.

Bleu's data centers will be "based in France", and "strictly separated from Microsoft's international data centers", and will benefit from total "operational autonomy", according to the joint statement.

Bleu aims for its services to obtain the "trusted cloud" label, announced on May 17 by the government to characterize cloud services which have high technical standards and are operated in Europe by European players.

Majority-owned by Capgemini and Orange, without a stake in Microsoft's capital, Bleu will benefit from "immunity" from US law.

The company will have "economic independence" from Microsoft, and will have its own engineers and technicians who will work "in total autonomy" from the American giant, Aiman ​​Ezzat, CEO of Capgemini, told AFP. of a joint interview with the CEO of Orange Stéphane Richard, and Jean-Philippe Courtois, vice-president of Microsoft.

“Microsoft will be a technological partner” of Bleu, but “not capitalist”, said Stéphane Richard for his part.

Bleu will target in particular customers of the State, French public services, but also operators of vital importance, these large companies considered fundamental for national security, such as large infrastructure networks (energy, transport, telecommunications, etc. .) or financial (OIV, operators of vital importance).

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- A "totally unique" agreement -

These customers will be able to benefit from Microsoft's cloud services (the Office 365 collaborative work suite, or the Azure platform), without their data falling under the influence of US law.

The American Cloud Act in particular, passed in 2018, in certain cases obliges American cloud service providers to communicate the data they host to the American authorities, even if this data is hosted outside the United States.

The French state wants to accelerate the transition to the cloud, which it still uses very little, but which is considered a pledge of flexibility and capacity for innovation for its digital transformation.

On May 17, the Minister of Transformation and the Civil Service Amélie de Montchalin announced that State administrations should now respect the principle of "cloud at the center": the cloud is now "a prerequisite for any new project, "to" accelerate public transformation, "she explained.

According to Jean-Philippe Courtois, the agreement signed by Microsoft and the two French groups is "totally unique" in the world.

Just can we find a distant cousin with the agreement signed by Microsoft with the Pentagon, which also provides for operating Microsoft's cloud tools "in an isolated environment," he explained.

In China, Microsoft is also leaving its cloud technology in the hands of a local company, of which it is, however, a co-shareholder, he recalled.

Mr. Courtois did not want to use the word "license" to qualify the nature of the future contracts between Microsoft and Bleu, limiting himself to evoking an "economic agreement" between the two entities.

The leaders remained cautious about the time it will take for Bleu's data centers to be operational and to start offering cloud services, Stéphane Richard just evoking a deadline "estimated at 18 months".

"We do not want to anticipate too much," we will have to "finalize the project to have the details," said Aiman ​​Ezzat for his part.

© 2021 AFP