France has selected local cloud service provider Scaleway, owned by Iliad, to manage the nation’s Health Data Hub, taking over from Microsoft Azure after prolonged disputes, according to a statement from Scaleway on Thursday. This deal enhances the French firm’s growing presence in Europe. In April, the European Commission granted a 180 million euro ($210 million) cloud contract to Scaleway, along with Post Telecom, OVHcloud, and STACKIT. Initially, the French authorities picked Microsoft Azure for the system, but this faced ongoing legal and political challenges. During a French Senate hearing, Microsoft officials acknowledged they could not block a U.S. court order accessing data of French residents, even if stored in France. A new law enacted in 2024 requires that critical data reside on infrastructure with guaranteed sovereignty, barring companies under the U.S. Cloud Act. After assessing more than 350 technical standards, Scaleway was appointed to safeguard medical information for tens of millions of French people. ($1 = 0.8553 euros)
