Blyes, a municipality which takes back the hand on its numerical
Blyes, a commune of 1500 inhabitants in the Ain plain, took advantage of a renovation operation of its town hall to completely review its approach to its digital architecture.
This project led by a visionary city council, chaired by Mayor Daniel Martin, will allow this municipality to regain full control of its digital infrastructure, in a responsible and local approach.
The town hall has not only migrated its entire architecture to a secure environment and continuously backed up on another micro-cloud, but is also able to provide cloud services to its citizens and economic actors in the town and surrounding areas, as well as interested local authorities.
The city council owns the infrastructure, which is operated by Kloud’Ici, which markets the concept.
Kloud’Ici’s micro-cloud is a cabinet that takes up about 1 square meter of floor space and requires a power supply and a network outlet. As you can see from our photo on the left, it’s easy to set up, and yet it has all the makings of a big one! You might ask, what’s the difference with another cloud player, or even one of the giants of the sector?
The answer lies in the 5 major issues addressed by the concept :
Metropolization ==> concentration of means and populations in one or a few places, with a de facto impoverishment of our territories, and this is also true for digital technology
The environment ==> concentration and energy crisis imposes challenges to access a more abundant decarbonized energy, with at the same time the need to be more economical with our resources
Cybersecurity ==> the threat is increasing, with more and more attacks on local authorities or small economic players, no one is safe. Resorting to big market players is not a guarantee. Multiplying the bases reinforces security, like the networking of a territory by clusters of micro-clouds.
The need for performance ==> The centralization and concentration of IT resources in a few places creates bottlenecks that greatly degrade performance. This effect is aggravated by the appearance of more and more needs related to the Internet of Things (smart city, industrial needs, etc…). Here again, the multiplication of multiple small entities, spreads the load and allows a greater resilience.
Digital sovereignty ==> need to control the origin of our hardware and software suppliers to protect ourselves from extraterritorial laws… Reassure citizens about where and how data is managed.
The key advantages that can be summarized for a territory, or a community wishing to adopt this concept, are the following :
The city council is the owner of its micro-cloud (what Kloud’Ici calls the level 1 client). It is therefore the owner of the land.
Like any landowner, the city hall receives a “rent” from Kloud’Ici, which charges for the services it provides.
The city council can offer services through Kloud’Ici to local economic actors and associations (on the same principle as renting a community hall), these are the so-called level 2 clients.
Kloud’Ici ensures the maintenance and sustainability of the micro-cloud.
The consumption of the micro-cloud is 500W, it can be powered by renewable energy, we are on reasoned consumption and in line with current concerns that they are environmental or energy costs.
The cabinets are made of partly recycled materials always in a responsible and sustainable approach.
This proposal gives back digital autonomy to the territory.
The services that can be offered are also assets to revitalize and attract companies to the territory.
It is possible to consider offering (at a cost) an e-mail service to each inhabitant with a personalized address with the name of the commune for example, and we can imagine new uses allowing a simplification of communications.
The launch of this project in Blyes is inspiring in more ways than one, and demonstrates the extreme vitality of our territories too often ignored by our metropolises and centralized political organizations. This initiative shows that thanks to digital technology, it is possible to make our regions more attractive. It is the very example of a project that allows us to lay the first bricks of a reindustrialization of our country, by providing local solutions of efficient, responsible and resilient digital infrastructures!
And in the same movement, this will allow territories to offer new services tailored to the population of its territory and closer to the needs of this population.
We are witnessing here, a community taking back control of its digital environment, thus gaining its digital autonomy!
This is a project to be followed over time, in order to be able to share with you all the benefits that will come from its use and the service projects that could be offered to the local actors of the territories concerned!
