As geopolitical tensions abound, France goes all in on its technique to cease utilizing overseas software program distributors, asserting plans to maneuver departments to homegrown Visio.
France’s David Amiel, minister for the civil service and state reform, is predicted to concern a mandate to all authorities departments in coming days, to stop utilizing US videoconferencing merchandise like Zoom, Microsoft Groups and Google Meet, in favour of French-developed Visio. The federal government says will probably be utilized in all Authorities departments by 2027, in accordance with reporting from Euronews.
France has lengthy telegraphed its willpower to achieve management over it digital infrastructure, and its technique to favour homegrown distributors over their US counterparts. All this as digital sovereignty is changing into a burning concern in Europe.
Again in 2020, Brussels-based GAIA-X was fashioned to align with the EU’s Digital Technique to boost Europe’s competitiveness within the digital economic system whereas safeguarding knowledge and digital infrastructure from exterior affect. The Gaia-X European Affiliation for Knowledge and Cloud AISBL consists of members from trade, analysis organisations, and authorities our bodies. GAIA-X is backed by European governments, notably Germany and France, in accordance with the OECD.
As for France, this newest transfer is designed, says Amiel, to “finish using non-European options and assure the safety and confidentiality of public digital communications by counting on a robust and sovereign instrument”.
Visio is a part of France’s Suite Numérique, a digital suite of sovereign instruments for civil servants, and is hosted on one other French firm’s sovereign cloud infrastructure, Outscale (a Dassault Systèmes subsidiary). French start-up Pyannote provides the AI transcription and diary instruments. Simply final summer time civil servants had been ordered off WhatsApp and Telegram and advised to make use of Tchap, a messaging service created particularly for them.
The French Authorities says it may save as much as €1m a yr in licensing charges by the swap to Visio, however that seems to be a facet bonus, as the actual aim is to chop its reliance on overseas suppliers for its essential digital infrastructure
“This technique highlights France’s dedication to digital sovereignty amid rising geopolitical tensions and fears of overseas surveillance or service disruptions,” Amiel stated.
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