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Cloudwatt

Cloudwatt was a core initiative of Project Andromède, one of France's periodic attempts at building a local computer industry. Project Andromède was announced in 2009 as a governmental desire for French-controlled cloud computing, with the goal of spending €285 million (US $338 million) in "cloud souverain" ("sovereign cloud" in English).[1][2]

Overview

The launch of Cloudwatt was a part of the Andromède project initiated in 2009 to promote France in the cloud computing market.[3][4]

Cloudwatt was established on September 6, 2012 as a subsidiary of Orange S.A., with the government of France and French military contractor Thales as secondary shareholders.[5] Patrick Starck became the CEO of the company.[6][7]

In 2013, Cloudwatt chose US-based Juniper Networks as a supplier to ensure French data sovereignty.[8] Commercial sales began in 2014,[9] and were expected to reach €500 million per year.[10] The company developed a Dropbox-like storage service targeting small businesses and organizations, which was advertised on TV in 2013.[11]

On March 20, 2015, Orange bought the company out the other investors.[12][13] On January 1, 2016, Cloudwatt merged with Orange Business Services through its subsidiary Orange Cloud for Business.

Despite government subsidies of €75 million, after two years, the project had revenues of just €6 million. At the end of July 2019, the platform announced to its customers the cessation of its activity, scheduled for January 31, 2020.[14][15][16] The users were advised to switch to the Flexible Engine public cloud platform.[17] On February 1, 2020, all services were terminated and clients were advised that their data was deleted.[18][19][20]

Assets

Cloudwatt had a capital of 225 million euros with the distribution of funds as follows: 44.4% for Orange, 22.2% for Thales, 33.3% for Caisse des Dépôts.

On January 13, 2015, Orange and its subsidiary Orange cloud for business announced the intention to buy back all of Cloudwatt.[21]

Since March 2015, Orange held 100% of the capital of Cloudwatt.

See also

  • Dirigisme
  • Plan Calcul
  • Minitel
  • Quaero

External links

References

  1. 285 millions d'euros pour Andromède, le cloud souverain français October 23, 2011^
  2. "France continues to pursue its own data centre infrastructure, dubbed “le cloud souverain”, despite the closure of some of the businesses initially behind the idea." https://theconversation.com/digital-colonialism-why-some-countries-want-to-take-control-of-their-peoples-data-from-big-tech-123048^
  3. Par Christophe Auffray Avril 2012. Cloud Andromède : Orange et Thales se félicitent et se disent prêts à démarrer ZDNet France, 20 April 2012, retrieved 2021-07-21^
  4. Franceinfo - Actualités en temps réel et info en direct Franceinfo, retrieved 2021-07-21^
  5. Cloud souverain : Orange et Thalès lancent Cloudwatt - Le Monde Informatique LeMondeInformatique, 6 September 2012, retrieved 2021-07-21^
  6. Yves Gr, montagne. Où en est Cloudwatt ? avec Raphaël Ferreira de eNovance Silicon, 2013-07-22, retrieved 2021-07-21^
  7. Cloudwatt : des offres naissantes misant sur l'Open Source www.journaldunet.com, retrieved 2021-07-21^
  8. Alex Scroxton. Cloudwatt deploys SDN to orchestrate public cloud service 28 July 2014, retrieved 19 October 2020^
  9. Mikael Ricknäs. Orange looks to take over struggling French cloud CIO, January 12, 2015^
  10. Maricar Sze. Cloudwatt Announces Complete Halt on Its Services Come Feb 2020 Myce.com, August 5, 2019^
  11. David Meyer. A guide to the French national cloud(s) gigaom.com, November 18, 2013, retrieved October 19, 2020^
  12. Orange confirms Cloudwatt acquisition Telecoms.com, March 20, 2015^
  13. Orange prend le contrôle de la totalité de Cloudwatt usine-digitale.fr, 20 March 2015, retrieved 2021-07-21^
  14. Cloudwatt : arrêt définitif de service en février 2020 - Le Monde Informatique LeMondeInformatique, 31 July 2019, retrieved 2021-07-21^
  15. Orange to close down Cloudwatt in France www.telecompaper.com, retrieved 2021-09-06^
  16. Orange enterre définitivement Cloudwatt ChannelNews, 2019-07-31, retrieved 2021-09-06^
  17. Flexible Engine, le Cloud public fiable et sécurisé d'Orange Cloud - Orange Business Services, retrieved 2021-07-21^
  18. La rédaction. Cloudwatt : vie et mort du premier « cloud souverain » de la France August 29, 2019^
  19. Orange enterre Cloudwatt, qui fermera ses portes le 31 janvier 2020 www.nextinpact.com, August 30, 2019, retrieved October 19, 2020^
  20. Adieu le cloud souverain, Orange ferme aujourd'hui Cloudwatt 2020-01-31^
  21. En voulant racheter Cloudwatt, Orange défie Atos dans le cloud français usine-digitale.fr, 13 January 2015, retrieved 2021-07-21^