Capgemini and Orange yesterday announced that Bleu, a company they have jointly created, is now engaging with select French public and private organizations to ensure that they are ready for the migration, once the first services start to go live on the platform from the end of 2024. Bleu aims to obtain the SecNumCloud 3.2 qualification in 2025 for its services to offer “cloud de confiance” based on Microsoft technology.
Capgemini and Orange launched Bleu in a strategic partnership with Microsoft, with the aim of meeting the specific cloud needs of the French State, public agencies, hospitals, regional authorities, Vital Importance Operators (OIVs) and Essential Service Operators (OSEs), enabling them to use Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure services. This offering is unique to the French market, based on specific technology developed by Microsoft and will enable clients to accelerate their digital ambitions while harnessing the full power of the Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure services.
After receiving validation from the European Commission in 2023, Bleu is now launching its commercial activities. Jean Coumaros, CEO of Bleu, and his team are engaging with public organizations and private companies interested in Bleu’s forthcoming “cloud de confiance” services and its future ecosystem of partners. In order to meet with strong demand from an array of French organizations, the coming months will be used to prepare their migration, carry out tests and pilots with clients, and to ensure their successful onboarding on Bleu. The Bleu cloud platform will be launched on a set of geographically distributed data centers across France, meeting the necessary high standards of resilience and availability.
Aiman Ezzat, Chief Executive Officer of the Capgemini Group
I'm proud of the work done by the Capgemini, Orange and Microsoft teams to realize our shared ambition of being able to offer, through Bleu, a solution that will enable clients to leverage the full power of Microsoft cloud services in a ‘cloud de confiance’. Bleu brings a unique combination of security and service benefits, including the widest range of technological innovations, enabling French organizations to accelerate their digital ambitions through the coming years.
Judson Althoff, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Microsoft
We are proud to partner with Bleu to bring Microsoft 365 productivity solutions and Microsoft Azure services to their forthcoming ‘cloud de confiance’ platform. With this strategic partnership, we are supporting France’s digital transformation efforts for its long-term success by enabling efficient and modern services.
Christel Heydemann, CEO of Orange
Together with our partner Capgemini, we are very pleased to announce today the launch of activities of our joint venture Bleu. As a leading player in the digital transformation of businesses in France, Orange is aware of the specific challenges in terms of data protection and sovereignty for critical infrastructure operators and public institutions. We are confident that Bleu will meet these needs by providing a cloud solution based on Microsoft services while being fully compliant with the standards set by French authorities in its “trusted cloud” doctrine. Bleu is now fully operational and is actively working with its future customers to prepare for their migration to the platform.
