Capgemini and Orange to start providing cloud services by end of 2022

Capgemini and Orange have confirmed that their future joint venture, Bleu, will provide trusted cloud (“Cloud de Confiance”) services to address the needs of specific French organizations. The services are expected to start supporting clients in preparing for their migration by the end of 2022 (date being subject to regulatory approvals). Bleu’s first services, including Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365, will be operational in 2024.

Since the announcement of Bleu in May 2021, Capgemini and Orange have been working closely together to confirm the target model, validate the technical solution with Microsoft, and initiate the development phase. In parallel, Capgemini and Orange are progressing with ANSSI to ensure Bleu Cloud services are designed to comply with SecNumCloud requirements. The new company is expected to be set up in 2022, after receiving the necessary regulatory approvals.

Jean Coumaros, currently Chief Transformation Officer and member of the Group Executive Committee at Capgemini, has been selected by the two shareholders as the proposed CEO of the future Bleu joint venture.

Once established, Bleu will promote its services and invite clients to prepare for their trusted cloud (“Cloud de Confiance”) migration through the Bleu “Readiness Program”. The objective of this program, which will be supported by Capgemini, Orange and an ecosystem of future partners, will be to ensure that clients are ready to transition when the platform is available. It will enable organizations to get trained, to initiate key preparation tasks, and to run trials and pilots.

By 2024, Bleu will be able to offer Microsoft Azure services and core Microsoft 365 services. The Bleu platform will be launched on a geographically distributed set of datacenters in France, meeting high resilience and availability requirements. Regular update processes will ensure that Bleu clients benefit from innovations delivered by Microsoft for Azure and Microsoft 365.

“Since the initial announcement of Bleu in May last year, Capgemini and Orange have been working hand in hand to progress the technical and regulatory aspects required to make this trusted cloud (“Cloud de Confiance”) project a reality,” comments Aiman Ezzat, Chief Executive Officer of the Capgemini Group. “Bleu brings a unique combination of benefits for clients in terms of security, service offering, and the widest range of the latest technology innovations. We are now looking forward to the implementation of the planned next steps so that organizations can prepare a smooth migration journey.”

“As an independent French company, 100% owned by French shareholders, Bleu will bring an unprecedented value proposition to French State and critical infrastructure operators. From now, our main ambition with our partner Capgemini is to make sure that clients are ready to benefit from Bleu services as soon as the platform is available and initiate their transition with the best support and guidance. This is the purpose of the Bleu Readiness Program. Trust is at the core of Orange value and is a key trigger for the French and European cloud ecosystem rise,” comments Christel Heydemann, Chief Executive Officer of Orange.

With this unique partnership, Bleu will offer Microsoft 365 and a broad range of Microsoft Azure services, including IaaS, PaaS and SaaS, in a “Cloud de Confiance” environment.