To understand why such a mechanism is necessary, it is enough to look at what has already happened. In 2023, a French data-management software vendor with more than fifteen years on the market was acquired by an American investment fund specialising in technology assets. A perfectly legal transaction, yet one that illustrates a risk few organisations anticipate: the moment a European technology player comes under non-European control. For customers who had made this choice partly for reasons of legal proximity or data governance, the acquisition raised a question their existing contracts did not address. Not the portability of data, but the durability of sovereignty.

This case is not isolated. It is structural.

For several years, public administrations, critical sectors and strategic players have sought to reduce their technological dependencies by favouring European providers. Hosting in Europe, workforce, decision-making headquarters and most R&D in Europe, European jurisdiction, control of capital: these criteria have become reflexes. Legitimate and necessary.

But they all answer the same question: who is this provider today?

Rarely another, equally essential one: who will it be tomorrow?

Sovereignty assessed at a single point in time

When an organisation chooses a European cloud provider, it generally checks where the data is hosted, which jurisdictions apply, who controls the company, and which certifications are held. These criteria make it possible to assess the present situation.

But the digital industry is structurally marked by constant consolidation. A company that is independent today may change hands within five years. In that scenario, the guarantees originally sought can shift profoundly, without the physical infrastructure changing by a single byte.

The servers stay in Europe. The data continues to be stored there. The contracts remain in force. But the centre of decision-making, the strategic direction and effective control of the technology can move outside the European perimeter.

An economic model that amplifies the risk

The issue is also macroeconomic. Part of the sovereignty risk comes not only from the technology, but from how certain digital companies are funded and valued.

European players, sometimes backed by public funding, innovation support schemes or the confidence of national institutions, can be built with an implicit trajectory of resale to private equity funds or non-European groups. In that scenario, the management of critical data, initially presented as a sovereign service, gradually becomes a marketable asset that can be transferred to non-European interests.

The Ultimate Sovereignty Clause is not intended to prohibit such transactions or to impose a general constraint on the market. Its purpose is to introduce an explicit and verifiable commitment that distinguishes companies genuinely committed to sovereignty over the long term from those whose model ultimately rests on the possible sale of a strategic dependency.

What conventional reversibility does not cover

The usual answer to digital dependency is reversibility: assuring customers they can retrieve their data if they decide to change provider. This is a necessary protection, and it can be sufficient for data of low sensitivity. But as criticality rises, reversibility alone is no longer enough. It must be paired with guarantees set at a credible level of proportionality, meaning commitments whose strength matches the sensitivity of the data involved.

A digital platform is more than the data it hosts. It runs on software, deployment tools, orchestration mechanisms, operating procedures, documentation and configurations. In many cases, retrieving the data without access to this technical environment is not enough to rebuild a working service.

The real dependency is not on the data. It is on the ability to operate the platform as a whole.

The Ultimate Sovereignty Clause

To address this, Clever Cloud has designed a new contractual mechanism for contracts covering critical or sensitive public services: the Ultimate Sovereignty Clause.

The principle is simple. If control of a European provider passes to a non-European entity, the mechanism triggers automatically, with no formality or external approval. Concretely, if Clever Cloud were to come under the control of a non-European player, the continuity rights defined in the contract would become exercisable by the designated public beneficiary: a government body, a local authority, a public institution or a European public operator. Where the takeover requires specific technical expertise, this beneficiary can appoint an authorised European operator, bound by the security and confidentiality requirements set out in the contract.

Within this framework, the technical elements identified as necessary to resume the service (certain software components, deployment scripts, orchestration elements, technical documentation and operating procedures) can be mobilised to organise temporary continuity or a controlled migration to a European solution.

One important clarification: the Ultimate Sovereignty Clause does not replace existing guarantees, it extends them. A SecNumCloud-qualified or GDPR-compliant provider already offers solid sovereignty guarantees during the term of the contract. What these schemes do not cover is what happens after a change of control, and that is precisely the risk the Ultimate Sovereignty Clause addresses. It does not make Clever Cloud's code open source and involves no general handover of production keys or secrets.

A logic of resilience, not portability

The distinction matters. Conventional reversibility is a logic of exit and migration: it sets the conditions under which a customer can leave a provider or move their service to another. The Ultimate Sovereignty Clause is a logic of continuity: it ensures the service can keep running within a controlled framework, even in a scenario of major disruption. It does not seek to prohibit an acquisition or to call into question the freedom of capital transactions: an acquirer can buy the company, but cannot use that acquisition to block or capture a sovereign dependency built around public services.

This approach is part of current debates on digital resilience, alongside requirements of security, compliance and availability. The Ultimate Sovereignty Clause raises a further question: can an organisation maintain its operational autonomy if its provider changes structurally?

A mechanism designed to become a standard

Clever Cloud designed this mechanism for its own contractual commitments. But the ambition goes further.

The Ultimate Sovereignty Clause is designed to be replicable by any European provider that wants to ground its customer relationships in lasting trust. It is meant to fit into existing digital-resilience frameworks, supplier-dependency assessment criteria, and the sovereignty doctrines advanced by institutional bodies in each sector.

A company that accepts this kind of commitment sends a clear signal: its value does not rest on the prospect of a future sale to a foreign player, but on a long-term model built on service continuity and trust.

Digital sovereignty is not measured only by where the data sits today. It is also measured by the ability to ensure that critical infrastructure remains controllable, whatever the ownership future of those who operate it.

For engineering teams, the question goes beyond simple data location. It also involves application hosting, infrastructure automation, resilience, and the ability to operate cloud platforms reliably over time.

In this context, many organizations are increasingly looking for European alternatives to US hyperscalers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

Over the past decade, the French cloud ecosystem has matured significantly. Several providers now offer infrastructures and platforms capable of supporting both private-sector organizations and public institutions with demanding regulatory requirements.

This article analyses five major sovereign cloud providers in France, highlighting their technical positioning, strengths, and operational models.

Sovereign Cloud France: Key Takeaways

• A French sovereign cloud aims to ensure European governance and avoid exposure to extraterritorial laws such as the CLOUD Act and FISA Section 702.
• It helps organizations maintain GDPR compliance and stronger legal control over data.
• Some providers deliver Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), while others offer automated Platform as a Service (PaaS) environments.
• Automation levels vary significantly between providers.
• Clever Cloud adopts a DevOps-oriented automated PaaS approach, reducing operational complexity for engineering teams.

What Is a Sovereign Cloud in France?

A sovereign cloud typically relies on several structural elements:

• a provider operating under European jurisdiction and GDPR compliance frameworks (data processing agreements, technical safeguards, traceability);
• governance independent from extraterritorial legislation such as the US CLOUD Act or FISA;
• infrastructure operated by the provider itself or by trusted sovereign partners;
• strong technical control over data, infrastructure, and operations.

Cloud sovereignty therefore does not depend solely on data center location.
It also relies on the legal framework, governance model, and operational independence of the cloud provider. In practice, sovereign cloud providers adopt different technical models.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

An IaaS provider offers raw infrastructure resources such as:

• virtual machines
• storage
• networking
• orchestration

Engineering teams must manage the architecture, deployments, high availability, and monitoring themselves.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

A PaaS provider automates part of the operational layer, depending on the platform capabilities:

• application deployment
• runtime management
• scalability
• monitoring
• service continuity

This model reduces operational overhead and accelerates development cycles.

The 5 Best Sovereign Cloud Providers in France

The following providers offer cloud infrastructure or platforms capable of hosting and running applications within a sovereign French cloud framework.

1. Clever Cloud: Automated PaaS for Hosting and Deploying Applications

Clever Cloud is a French cloud platform founded in 2010 that allows organizations to host, deploy, and operate applications without managing the underlying infrastructure. The platform follows a Platform as a Service (PaaS) model that automates a large part of operational management and simplifies application deployment.

Clever Cloud is designed to simplify application operations for organizations of all sizes — from independent developers to enterprises and public-sector institutions. The platform handles automatic scalability, resilience, and monitoring.

Advantages

• Automated PaaS platform
• Native runtime support: Node.js, PHP, Docker, .NET, Go, Python, etc. 
• Managed Kubernetes (CKE)
• Native Git deployment and CI/CD integrations
• Platform-managed high availability
• ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and HDS (Health Data Hosting) certifications
• Sovereign infrastructure operated outside extraterritorial jurisdictions
• Reduced operational workload for engineering teams

Limitations

• Less suited for architectures requiring full IaaS-level infrastructure control
• No direct SecNumCloud certification (though a SecNumCloud environment is available through a partnership with Cloud Temple)

Why Clever Cloud Differs from IaaS Providers

Unlike traditional IaaS providers, Clever Cloud automates most of the operational workload. Engineering teams do not need to manage:

• virtual machines
• scalability
• resilience
• monitoring

The platform follows a simple principle: “You write the code. We run it.”

2. OVHcloud: Large-Scale European Cloud Infrastructure

OVHcloud is one of the leading European cloud providers. Founded in France in 1999, the company operates a large network of data centers across Europe, North America, and Asia. Its portfolio covers the entire cloud spectrum, including infrastructure, public cloud, private cloud, bare metal, and managed services. OVHcloud primarily targets large enterprises and public-sector organizations.

Advantages

• Extensive catalog of cloud services
• IaaS, PaaS, and bare-metal offerings
• SecNumCloud-certified services
• Managed Kubernetes
• European governance
• Infrastructure operated directly by the provider

Limitations

• Architecture can be complex to operate
• Automation often depends on integration layers
• Steeper learning curve for less experienced teams

3. Scaleway: Developer-Focused French Public Cloud

Scaleway is a cloud provider owned by the Iliad Group (Free) and is one of the most prominent French public cloud platforms. The platform provides a full public cloud offering including compute, storage, and managed services, and is widely used by technology startups and software companies.

Advantages

• French public cloud provider
• Managed Kubernetes
• S3-compatible storage
• Rich API ecosystem
• Transparent pricing model

Limitations

• SecNumCloud certification process currently underway
• Native CI/CD automation not included
• Primarily an IaaS-oriented platform

4. Cloud Temple: Sovereign Cloud for Regulated Environments

Cloud Temple is a French cloud provider specializing in highly regulated environments. The company delivers certified sovereign infrastructures and supports numerous public-sector projects. Its platform is frequently used for deployments requiring strong compliance frameworks.

Advantages

• SecNumCloud certification
• Strong positioning in the public sector
• Sovereign private cloud infrastructure
• Extensive regulatory expertise
• Personalized consulting and integration

Limitations

• Less developer-centric
• More project-driven offerings
• Solutions often structured around custom deployments and regulated environments rather than self-service application platforms

5. Outscale (Dassault Systèmes): SecNumCloud-Certified Sovereign Infrastructure

Outscale is the cloud subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes. The platform provides highly secure cloud infrastructure widely used in regulated sectors. Its cloud services are SecNumCloud certified by the French cybersecurity agency ANSSI, making it one of the most compliant cloud environments available in France.

Advantages

• SecNumCloud certification
• Strong regulatory compliance
• AWS-compatible APIs
• Infrastructure suited for regulated industries
• High resilience

Limitations

• Primarily an IaaS offering
• Less developer-focused
• Requires advanced cloud operational expertise

French Sovereign Cloud: A Mature Ecosystem

The sovereign cloud ecosystem in France is now highly developed and diversified. French providers cover the entire cloud spectrum:

• SecNumCloud-certified infrastructures
• public cloud platforms
• automated PaaS environments

This diversity allows organizations to select a platform that fits their specific priorities: regulatory compliance, performance, automation, or operational simplicity. For engineering teams, the right choice often depends on automation levels and internal operational capabilities.

In this landscape, automated PaaS platforms play a distinctive role. They help reduce operational complexity while maintaining a sovereign cloud environment. Clever Cloud follows this approach by combining platform automation, technological sovereignty, and open standards.

The announcement was made during the Franco-German summit “Summit on European Digital Sovereignty – Shaping Europe’s digital future. Together.” Both companies see this collaboration as a key lever to make artificial intelligence more accessible and truly sovereign in Europe.

They note that despite growing interest in AI, industrial adoption is still significantly hindered by computing costs. SpiNNcloud’s current systems already reduce certain costs by up to 17x. The next architecture, SpiNNext, is expected to push efficiency gains even further, with potential savings of up to 80x. A breakthrough that could reshape the dynamics of AI industrialization on the continent.

A Franco-German cooperation for a sovereign AI infrastructure

The two partners see their collaboration as a structuring component of a Franco-German  initiative dedicated to AI infrastructures. They emphasize that sustainable competition with global giants will only be possible by strengthening cooperation among European players. Their ambition goes beyond their own partnership: they aim to involve other innovative SMEs across the continent to form a network of expertise capable of delivering essential digital building blocks without external dependency.

Clever Cloud operates a European cloud platform for hosting, automation, databases, and orchestration. All technology is developed in-house and operated in Europe. The company employs around one hundred people and serves customers in more than 120 countries. 
SpiNNcloud, for its part, develops computing architectures inspired by the human brain, designed for high-performance computing and artificial intelligence applications. Its systems currently rely on the SpiNNaker2 architecture, while SpiNNext is already under development.

The cooperation has entered an operational phase. The first SpiNNcloud systems are being integrated into Clever Cloud’s infrastructure, and technical tests are underway. Two workstreams are being developed: leveraging the performance of the systems for intensive computing, and a shared “Token as a Service” layer, enabling companies to use AI services -language models or other algorithms - based on actual consumption, with significantly reduced costs and energy usage. The teams have aligned their roadmap around integration, security, and operations.

By relying on European technologies-both hardware and software-the two companies aim to contribute to the emergence of a truly independent AI infrastructure. Following the summit, they plan to continue discussions with French, German, and European authorities to share insights on infrastructures, energy efficiency, and digital sovereignty. The event held between President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Friedrich Merz also provided a platform for extensive exchanges with the attending delegations.

Quentin Adam, CEO of Clever Cloud, States: “We want a Europe that develops its own technologies and takes control of its digital future. With SpiNNcloud, we demonstrate that European industry not only has the expertise but also the determination to address the major challenges of AI: costs, energy consumption, sovereignty. This collaboration shows that a cooperating Europe can design high-performance, efficient, and truly independent infrastructures.”

Hector Gonzalez, CEO of SpiNNcloud, adds: “With Clever Cloud, we found an ideal partner to bring the unique energy efficiency of our brain-inspired systems to industrial use cases. This Franco-German cooperation proves that Europe has the technological building blocks needed to build competitive and sovereign solutions.”

About SpiNNcloud

SpiNNcloud is reinventing AI infrastructure through a brain-inspired computing architecture designed to drastically reduce energy consumption while maintaining high performance. Its event-based approach, in which computations occur only when needed, opens up new margins of efficiency. The company provides complete systems to research centers and enterprises worldwide.

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An unprecedented initiative led by Gigalis

Created in 2000 by the Pays de la Loire Regional Council, Gigalis has established itself as a key player in public digital services. Transformed into a Public Interest Group (GIP) in January 2025, it now supports regional authorities and institutions with sovereign services in connectivity, cybersecurity, cloud, and the pooling of digital procurement. It is within this dynamic that, on September 1st, the Fabrique IA Territoriale was officially launched — a unique initiative in France bringing together public actors and private companies to address the challenges of artificial intelligence and open source.

Three complementary lots to structure the AI ecosystem

The framework agreement designed by Gigalis has been divided into three lots, covering the entire lifecycle of AI projects.

1. The first focuses on consulting and raising awareness around artificial intelligence, and was awarded to a group of national and regional players including Linagora, Onepoint, Pyxis support, Synchrone et Wavestone.
2. The second, dedicated to community integration, brings together Atos, DRI, Metapolis, Beewant, Reel IT, Cross Data, PARTHEMA, DATA INCEPTIO.AI et Valeuriad.
3. Finally, the third lot, centered on infrastructure, hosting, deployment, and operations using open source technologies, was awarded to Clever Cloud, Linagora, DRI, Siium et Reel IT.

This organization ensures strong complementarity and makes it possible to provide public sector actors with a coherent, sovereign, and tailored offering that fully meets their needs.

Clever Cloud’s expertise for Lot 3

Clever Cloud’s participation in the Fabrique IA Territoriale is fully aligned with our mission: providing a European, secure cloud that frees public organizations from technical constraints. In practice, our approach relies on proven open source technologies, integrated into an automated infrastructure to ensure interoperability, performance, and security. At the same time, we guarantee high availability, continuous monitoring, and measurable commitments through transparent quality indicators.

Beyond the technical aspects, our contribution also consists in transferring knowledge to gradually make beneficiaries autonomous. This transfer of expertise lies at the heart of our approach: supporting, securing, and sustaining digital projects without creating dependency on external providers.

A commitment to digital sovereignty in the region

The Fabrique IA Territoriale is more than just a framework agreement: it embodies a collective vision of trusted digital services, designed for local territories. By joining this initiative, Clever Cloud strengthens its commitment to offering a credible European alternative to major international providers. This approach enables local authorities to benefit from modern, resilient infrastructures while supporting the regional digital ecosystem.

For Clever Cloud, this participation illustrates the convergence between our values and those promoted by Gigalis: sovereignty, cooperation, and sustainability. We believe that an ethical and responsible digital environment must be built on open, secure, and accessible solutions for all public sector actors.

Conclusion and outlook

Our role within the Fabrique IA Territoriale reaffirms our determination to support the digital transformation of public services, giving them the means to manage their projects with efficiency and transparency. Alongside committed partners, we put automation, security, and sovereignty at the service of collective intelligence and local innovation.

To learn more about how Clever Cloud can support your public sector or territorial projects:

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