10 min read
Scalingo’s commitment to sovereign cloud
Scalingo’s goal is to combine operational excellence with digital sovereignty.
As more and more sensitive data is hosted in the cloud, digital sovereignty is becoming an increasingly important issue for businesses and public-sector organizations.
Recent global events and the pandemic have also highlighted Europe’s reliance on US-based hosting providers and the lack of credible alternatives, as discussed in an article published by the Sciences Po Digital, Governance and Sovereignty Chair.
To write this article, we spoke with several experts on the subject, including Christophe Chaudier and Pierre Noro, whom we interviewed about sovereign cloud computing.
In this article, we’ll explain what a sovereign cloud is and why the topic has become increasingly important.
We’ll then look at what Scalingo is doing to provide a sovereign cloud that combines operational excellence for developers with digital sovereignty.
What is a sovereign cloud?
The definition we use here comes directly from the French government’s Guide to Cloud Computing and Data Centers for Local Authorities.
The guide describes sovereign cloud as a:
“Deployment model in which the hosting and all processing of data by a cloud service are physically carried out within the national territory, by an entity governed by French law and in accordance with French laws and standards.”
A sovereign cloud can therefore be understood as a model for hosting applications and data that complies with the laws of the country concerned — France in this case — while keeping data and processing within that country.
You can find the original document here.
Why is sovereign cloud important for French and European organizations?
The data hosting market
If you have ever hosted a web application, you’ll know that many of the world’s largest cloud and hosting providers are based in the United States.
As a result, these providers operate under US law and may be subject to legislation that affects access to data — including data that may be strategically important to a business or even to a country.
This raises several issues that make cloud sovereignty particularly relevant.
The risks of hosting data outside the European Union
For European organizations, hosting applications and data outside the EU can introduce a number of legal, strategic and operational considerations.
Risk management and protectionism
One important consideration is risk management, particularly when relying on non-European providers.
US companies, for example, are subject to US legislation such as the Patriot Act, which was introduced following the September 2001 attacks.
This legislation expanded the powers of US authorities to access certain information held by individuals and companies.
Organizations hosting sensitive information with US providers therefore need to consider the potential implications of foreign legislation on their data and intellectual property.
More broadly, political and regulatory environments can change. Depending on geopolitical developments, relying heavily on infrastructure controlled by companies in another jurisdiction may create additional risks.
For French and European organizations, this is one of the reasons why the choice of a sovereign cloud can become strategically important.
Your relationship with cloud providers
Among the world’s largest cloud providers are AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure.
Companies such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft operate across a very wide range of industries. This means that, in some cases, a cloud provider may also become a competitor to its own customers.
Organizations may therefore want to consider the strategic implications of storing critical data and running key infrastructure with companies whose commercial interests could potentially overlap with their own.
Their size can also mean that individual customers have very little influence over their product roadmaps.
Large cloud platforms also tend to encourage the use of their own proprietary technologies, such as Google Cloud SQL, Amazon Redshift or Azure Cosmos DB. While these services can be powerful, they can also increase dependency on a particular provider.
This creates another important consideration: vendor lock-in and the balance of power between organizations and their cloud providers.
Regulatory change
Another issue to consider when hosting applications and data outside Europe is regulatory change.
European legislation does not necessarily provide the same protections once data is subject to the jurisdiction of companies based outside the European Union.
Organizations therefore need to understand not only where their data is physically hosted, but also which legal jurisdiction applies to the companies operating the infrastructure.
France as a service-driven economy
Christophe Chaudier, founder of Lydra and DevOps mentor, also highlighted another consideration.
France has increasingly developed into a service-driven economy. As a result, French businesses and public-sector organizations generate and manage significant volumes of data.
This makes the question of data governance and cloud sovereignty particularly important for French and European organizations.
Scalingo and sovereign cloud
Why Scalingo is committed to cloud sovereignty
Since its creation, Scalingo has aimed to provide a European alternative to US-based hosting services.
Scalingo was founded following the PRISM revelations, when Edward Snowden revealed information about the access US intelligence agencies had to data held by major technology companies.
This helped shape our ambition to build a Platform as a Service that enables European companies to host their applications and data in Europe.
Unlike an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Scalingo manages the operational layer of the platform so that developers can focus on building and shipping their applications.
To support our approach to sovereign hosting, we rely on infrastructure provided by 3DS OUTSCALE, the cloud subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes.
Scalingo is a French company headquartered in Strasbourg.
With 3DS OUTSCALE infrastructure, users benefit from:
Data hosted in France
Strong data security
Data traceability
A high level of compliance, including ISO 27001 and SecNumCloud
Scalingo operates two cloud regions, including one based on OUTSCALE infrastructure qualified under SecNumCloud, the security framework established by ANSSI, the French National Cybersecurity Agency.
SecNumCloud defines strict requirements covering physical, organizational and contractual security for cloud service providers.
Scalingo’s orchestration technology has also been developed in-house by our team as part of our approach to sovereignty.
With our Platform as a Service, we aim to maintain control over as much of the technology stack as possible, relying on software that is developed, hosted or adapted by our teams.
But sovereignty alone is not enough.
For us, a sovereign cloud must also deliver operational excellence. Simply being a French or European provider is not sufficient if the quality of the product cannot compete with the major international cloud platforms.
Scalingo: operational excellence and sovereignty
“Being French is not enough. Without operational excellence, data localization in France will remain a secondary criterion for a CIO.”
— Pierre Noro, author of Le cloud souverain est de retour
The major global cloud providers have set a very high standard in terms of technology and service quality.
When we created Scalingo, we quickly realized that competing in the cloud market meant providing a product that was both technically strong and easy for developers to use.
Competing through outstanding service quality
Our first priority was therefore to build a versatile platform capable of adapting to the needs of businesses and public-sector organizations.
Scalingo supports more than 50 programming languages and can work with virtually any framework thanks to Buildpacks.
Scalingo is also compatible with Heroku. Organizations currently running applications on the US-based Heroku platform can therefore migrate more easily to Scalingo and benefit from a European Platform as a Service.
We also provide managed versions of some of the most widely used open-source databases, including:
High availability is available for these databases, with a 99.96% SLA.
This approach has enabled Scalingo to host a number of French government-backed startups and applications handling sensitive data.
We have also always placed a strong emphasis on providing high-quality support for developers.
Our median support response time is 10 minutes, and our support team is made up of engineers.
We know how important it is for developers to get fast, technically relevant answers so that infrastructure issues do not block their work.
The future of Scalingo: going further with sovereign cloud
Building awareness alongside global cloud providers
Now that we have explained what sovereign cloud means and why it matters, another challenge remains: visibility.
Christophe Chaudier, one of the sovereign cloud experts we interviewed, highlighted this point:
“If Platform as a Service providers such as Scalingo want to become better known and compete with the major US players, they need to invest in education.”
AWS, for example, spent years investing heavily in training, cloud credits and free offers.
Microsoft has also invested significantly in education and training programs to expand awareness and adoption of its products.
At Scalingo, one of our initiatives has been the creation of our Startup Program.
The program enables startup founders to access exclusive benefits, including hosting credits, and is offered through selected incubators and schools.
If you would like to know more, get in touch with us.
We also believe strongly in collaborating with other French and European cloud providers, such as OUTSCALE.
Building a stronger sovereign cloud ecosystem requires cooperation between multiple specialized technology companies.
Differentiating through excellence
“If French cloud providers want to compete with the global giants, they need to integrate with a broad range of infrastructure and provide a comprehensive offering.”
— Christophe Chaudier, sovereign cloud expert and DevOps mentor
To differentiate ourselves as a PaaS provider, we therefore need to continually reduce friction for developers and make the platform as flexible as possible.
“A sovereign cloud must also be a trusted cloud.”
— Yann Klis, founder of Scalingo
At Scalingo, we believe sovereignty and trust go hand in hand.
A trusted cloud must demonstrate that it follows recognized information security standards and best practices.
The goal should not simply be to describe a service as “sovereign”, but to provide tangible evidence of its security, reliability and governance through independent third parties.
This is why Scalingo has continued to invest in security standards, certifications and trusted infrastructure.
At the same time, we continue to improve our platform so that it can integrate with a wide range of infrastructure while remaining simple for developers to use.
Strengthening sovereign cloud through the European ecosystem
Another important part of our vision is collaboration with companies that share our values around sovereignty and operational excellence.
We regularly evaluate technology providers across the French and European ecosystem that can complement the Scalingo platform.
For example, we have worked with and recommended French technology companies offering complementary services in areas such as content delivery, email, CRM and API management.
By building an ecosystem of interoperable European technologies, we can provide organizations with more credible alternatives to vertically integrated cloud platforms.
Conclusion
At Scalingo, we believe cloud sovereignty will continue to be an important issue for French and European organizations.
The hosting of applications and data is currently dominated by a relatively small number of global technology companies. For some organizations, this concentration can create strategic, legal and operational risks.
However, sovereignty alone is not enough.
A sovereign cloud must also provide the reliability, developer experience and operational excellence organizations expect from modern cloud platforms.
Our goal at Scalingo is therefore to combine both: a European approach to cloud sovereignty with a high-performance Platform as a Service that makes developers’ lives easier.
Yann Klis
Yann Klis co-founded Scalingo. Scalingo's vision is to offer a european sovereign cloud housting platform for developers. Today Scalingo hosts thousands of web applications from customers located all over the world. Before that Yann founded Novelys a web studio specialised in Ruby on Rails technology.
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