Thales and Google Cloud will create a joint venture

The two groups will create a joint venture under French law, in which Thales will retain control. This joint venture is expected to build three data centres on French soil in the second quarter of 2022, for an official launch in 2023. The aim of Thales and Google is to obtain the « trusted cloud » label announced in May 2021 by the French government.

This label guarantees the use, under license, of the best U.S. cloud technologies, but without falling within the scope of the Cloud Act. This 2018 U.S. act forces—in some cases—U.S. cloud operators to disclose the data they host to the authorities, even if it is hosted outside the U.S.

Issued by the ANSSI, the « trusted cloud » label is part of the French government’s new cloud strategy, following the abandonment of national sovereign cloud projects.

To obtain this label, a cloud offer must be proposed by European companies, with servers located in France, and guarantee a high level of security (by integrating the ANSSI’s existing SecNumCloud label), as well as blocking the extraterritoriality of certain foreign laws such as the Cloud Act. A service provider must be certified as a « trusted cloud » to be allowed to transfer the state’s IT and public services into the cloud.

Earlier this month, Thales announced a partnership with Microsoft to develop a cybersecurity solution based on Microsoft SaaS Sentinel.