On Tuesday, January 9, European giant OVHcloud announced that it has achieved SecNumCloud 3.2 certification, France’s highest cybersecurity standard. The designation guarantees greater protection from extraterritorial laws and is a perfect fit for the company as the US administration expands the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a controversial law because of the scale of mass surveillance it authorises, including in Europe.
Behind this acronym is the highest standard of cyber security in France, provided by the Agence nationale de sécurité des systèmes d’information (ANSSI, French Cybersecurity Agency). To obtain it, you have to ensure that your service and software comply with a whole list of technical and legal criteria, as well as putting in place physical security measures and training specialised staff.
Created in 2016, this certificate was updated in 2022 with the name SecNumCloud 3.2. The goal is to strengthen protections against extraterritorial laws such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the CLOUD Act, which allow US intelligence agencies to access data from foreign companies for national security purposes if they use US software.
OVHcloud has announced the opening of a zone for its SecNumCloud sovereign product. Located in the OVHCloud data center in Gravelines, northwest France, the area is connected to two other campuses owned by OVHCloud. With this step, OVHcloud strengthens its sovereign services in addition to its 18 certificatio such as ISO 27001, ISO 27701, German C5, Spanish ENS.
French companies are paying more and more attention to the so-called “sovereign cloud”, unlike foreign cloud providers, which are mainly American companies. Research on the growth of trusted cloud shows that this market is growing rapidly and will continue to grow in the future.
The number of SecNumCloud offerings has already doubled between 2022 and 2023
The cloud market in France is expected to reach €260 billion by 2027. Trusted cloud, which requires significant investment and long-term commitment, is expected to be a significant part of this market. As part of this growth, OVHcloud aims to expand its advantage and target-sensitive sectors such as healthcare and public administration, as well as private sector customers in sectors such as finance, banking, healthcare and cyber security. OVHCloud provides its customers with services that are fully protected by extraterritorial laws.
OVHcloud Announces Roadmap Acceleration
In addition to the new data centers and SecNumCloud 3.2 qualification upgrade, OVHcloud announced that it will accelerate its SecNumCloud roadmap with the upcoming BareMetal product release.
The provider also plans to extend SecNumCloud’s expertise to its portfolio of 40 public cloud products, including Kubernetes, databases, data platforms and modern artificial intelligence solutions. Finally, at the European level, OVHcloud is actively preparing a proposal for the future EUCS (European Union Certification Scheme).
