The micro-cloud of Blyes, an example of hunting in packs
The geography of digital technology is ultimately like that of human beings: it is concentrated in large centers, important nodes around which everything is organized. Just as there are half a dozen cities that make up France, centralizing the bulk of the country’s wealth, a few data centers support the majority of the national digital capital. Large data centers correspond to the urban metropolises of people, because digital technology is also “metropolized”. This is why human metropolises are logically superimposed on digital ones, particularly Paris, which concentrates a number of resources and decisive players in this universe. This concentration of digital technology brings some advantages to its protagonists, economies of scale, technical interactions in the same place between operators; but there are also disadvantages such as the explosion of digital real estate, a concentration of risks, the hold of a few players on an entire economy…
However, in the territories, sometimes far from the metropolises, there are carriers of innovative, efficient and accessible solutions. Some of them aim to give back to our territories their digital autonomy in terms of quality infrastructure. These solutions address aspects of cybersecurity, deconcentration of performance and services from the perspective of real sovereignty, and not just marketing, by resolutely assuming the defense of citizens’ interests while assuming the role of a tool for redevelopment for the benefit of the territories.
We met with one of these bold territories, which may hold the future of our economy within them, and of digital sovereignty under citizen control. We had previously mentioned the commune of Blyes in the Ain, the first to have developed a communal cloud, therefore under local control. We went back there recently, on March 10th 2023, after one month of operation, an exchange was organized with the municipal actors, by KLOUD’ICI and its partners, but also with the first symbolic customer of this local cloud, who was able to see where the “microkloud” was located, the physical home of its data and applications. There were also several other economic actors and territorial organizations to discover the interest that such an infrastructure represents.
The municipal team has testified to its first feedback, to have now a powerful and resilient information system, while most small town halls suffer from under-equipment and data security often fragile, as the news unfortunately reminds us. KLOUD’ICI also allows the town hall to benefit from new uses.
On the occasion of this commissioning, a partnership between KLOUD’ICI and LEXISTEMS, a specialist in Artificial Intelligence, has made it possible to offer a sovereign solution “from floor to ceiling”. LEXISTEMS provides artificial intelligence as a lexical search engine for an efficient relationship between the machine and the user. The productivity gain is simply phenomenal, as for example in the search for key documents, the daily routine in a town hall.
In addition, the startup KLOUD’ICI integrates the 100% sovereign cybersecurity solution proposed by SERENICITY, which allows to effectively anticipate threats. KLOUD’ICI was born in 2021 from the desire to offer a decentralized and relocated cloud solution in the territories. The company defends a scenario that favors the number and multiplication rather than gigantism and centralization. We live in a dangerous world, and in the event of an industrial accident or cyber-attack, we need to be able to guarantee that users will recover their data and applications quickly, and even to guarantee the constant continuity of activities. “In the case of a cyber attack, it is better to lose a few houses than the whole city,” says KLOUD’ICI. Large datacenters are very well protected, they are fortresses, but if one of them falls, it affects a considerable number of users and even an entire economy.
We can no longer rely on these metropolitan datacenters alone, KLOUD’ICI proposes a defense in depth to complement what exists.
The young company bases its solution on the microkloud, a small replica of the large data centers, the size of a fridge, installed at the customers’ premises. The latter thus become the cloud of their territory, and can invite the residents of the system to use it. These local customers, of second level, can place their data or their applications in a framework under citizen responsibility when the installation is in town hall. Moreover, KLOUD’ICI proposes that the microklouds be interconnected in clusters and swarms, which promotes structural solidarity, guaranteeing a resilient and protective network. This solution thus provides our local authorities, VSEs and SMEs with a level of performance and cybersecurity usually reserved for large groups.
Through its approach KLOUD’ICI confirms the emergence of a community of French digital sovereignty, made of partners who are used to hunting in packs, and who communicate this state of mind to their customers, invited to adopt a solution of risk sharing, but also to think about the redevelopment of territories to promote economic development, maintaining employment and population, thanks to an economic model that makes IT a profit center rather than cost.
We hope that this initiative in Blyes will not only spread within its territory, but that it will make other territories in the region want to join them. The approach taken by these French digital actors, while restoring sovereignty to our territories, offers efficient, ethical, responsible and eco-reasonable solutions. An example that I want to believe will be followed by many others!
