Bleu, the joint venture cloud company created by Capgemini and Orange, is now engaging with select French public and private organizations. This follows validation from the European Commission in 2023 on the need to establish a “cloud de confiance” for security reasons. The first services are now anticipated to begin from the end of 2024 based on Microsoft technology.
Capgemini and Orange launched Bleu in a strategic partnership with Microsoft, with the aim of meeting the specific cloud needs of the French State, public agencies, hospitals, regional authorities, Vital Importance Operators (OIVs) and Essential Service Operators (OSEs), enabling them to use Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure services.
In order to meet with strong demand from an array of French organizations, the coming months will be used to prepare their migration, carry out tests and pilots with clients, and to ensure their successful onboarding on Bleu. The Bleu cloud platform will be launched on a set of geographically distributed data centers across France, meeting the necessary high standards of resilience and availability.
“I’m proud of the work done by the Capgemini, Orange and Microsoft teams to realize our shared ambition of being able to offer, through Bleu, a solution that will enable clients to leverage the full power of Microsoft cloud services in a ‘cloud de confiance’,” comments Aiman Ezzat, Chief Executive Officer of the Capgemini Group. “Bleu brings a unique combination of security and service benefits, including the widest range of technological innovations, enabling French organizations to accelerate their digital ambitions through the coming years.”
Christel Heydemann, CEO of Orange, commented: “Together with our partner Capgemini, we are very pleased to announce today the launch of activities of our joint venture Bleu. As a leading player in the digital transformation of businesses in France, Orange is aware of the specific challenges in terms of data protection and sovereignty for critical infrastructure operators and public institutions. We are confident that Bleu will meet these needs by providing a cloud solution based on Microsoft services while being fully compliant with the standards set by French authorities in its “trusted cloud” doctrine. Bleu is now fully operational and is actively working with its future customers to prepare for their migration to the platform.”
