Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to Uplink, where we explore the world of digital infrastructure, uncovering the technology fueling AI and cloud innovation, with the leaders making it happen. I'm your host, michael Reid. My guest today is Nicholas Tafor, strategic Development Director at CloudTemple. Cloud Temple. We'll be exploring the rise of sovereign and trusted clouds and why data security and locality are becoming a critical piece of the infrastructure puzzle for businesses in Europe. Let's dive in. Well, thanks for joining us at Uplink. This is a cool podcast we're taking to the world and we're here in France, so thank you for joining us. I've got Nicolas Dufour and I've been practicing that pronouncement. Yes, yes, so thank you for joining us. I've got Nicolas Dufour, yes, right, and I've been practicing that pronouncement?

Speaker 2: 0:47

Yes, I practice too.

Speaker 1: 0:48

Yeah, so thank you for joining us and thank you for your partnership. I've got a bunch of questions I'd love to ask, but you know first, maybe, what is your current role, and then I'd love to sort of unpack that and also a little bit of your history as well.

Speaker 2: 1:01

Yes, it's funny for the story. So, okay, my current role is to be a strategy business director of Cloud Temple. Very cool company yeah, a company for cloud, trusted cloud for a sensible information system and critical data, and so you are a cloud company based in France. Yes, At this moment only in France. Yes, but you are going to open in Germany.

Speaker 1: 1:31

In Germany as well, in one or one and a half year, okay, fantastic, yeah, and it's interesting because maybe it's like you can tell us a little bit about Cloud Temple, but you service a lot of digital sovereignty, so you keep. I think this is one of the strengths that you bring. You can actually deliver a cloud function for France, yeah, but also, I assume you found this company because of your background. I'd love you to share a little bit about that.

Speaker 2: 1:58

Okay, just in a few words. Mike Barron I am. Previously I was CEO and CTO for the government, justice ministry, ecology ministry, interior ministry, finance ministry and so on, and especially on cloud transformation.

Speaker 1: 2:22

That's fantastic For the administration, and so you did that for a while, and so that can't have been easy. There must have been a lot of change inside that. I mean, what's something interesting that occurred?

Speaker 2: 2:32

throughout that period I wanted to open my eyes, my mind, on public sector and private sector, yes and to deal with some other use cases and with AI solution and so on. So it's very enjoyable and a big motivation for that.

Speaker 1: 2:56

Yeah, and so you're in public service or public sector for a long period, solving some very challenging problems. Yeah, heading up this role for a long period, solving some very challenging problems yeah, heading up this role for a long period of time. You would have been seeing a lot of technology changes. Obviously, cloud Temple came along. Were you engaged with Cloud Temple before you joined? Had you seen them inside your role, and is that how you ended up? I knew them before.

Speaker 2: 3:20

Yeah, but as I was a serious servant, I had to choose a company with no contracts with me before. Okay, because it's a question of I don't know if the term is correct in English deontology. We don't have to work in a private company. We worked before in my civil servant role, so with Cloud Temple.

Speaker 1: 3:44

I've been doing some research on the services that you bring I mean Megaport's on-ramp to you. So that's one of the most important things for us. We've become the connector to clouds and so we're seeing this globally. But I'd love you to give the perspective from a French lens. But we're seeing this requirement for sovereignty for data, particularly with AI and so forth ie governments that want to control where their data goes really, really important. The other piece that we're seeing is this hybrid play, so where companies have a little bit of, they use some cloud, and I know you have a lot of. Your customers are between clouds and also on your premises, and so yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:23

So maybe give us some understanding of what you're seeing from a trending perspective, what your customers are seeing, how you're evolving the company in response to that. Is AI playing out for you yet? How is that seen, and what percentages are you seeing through government? I mean, we can chat any which way, but yeah, maybe just start on that side. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 4:42

Our conviction for Cloud Temple is to work for our clients, and these clients have often two or three clouds. Yes, hyper-scaler often, private cloud sometimes and other trusted cloud like us. Okay, we have specialized engineers in Cloud Temple to deal with this kind of architecture. Yes, we have to deal with network, and Megapod will bring us a lot of services about that we appreciate that.

Speaker 2: 5:17

Yeah, we deal with the architecture and we work with the clients to fit the best architecture and we work with the clients to fit the best architecture between all these types of clouds to be performance and to serve and to help to gain the objective of the enterprise.

Speaker 1: 5:32

And so are you making decisions on applications Like a good application to live in AWS? Is this a good application to live on-premise? Is that maybe something else on Oracle or whatever Is?

Speaker 2: 5:46

that what you see. Okay, we have two levels in Cloud Temple. We have the infrastructure level. We can host everything because it's very simple and these are pre-built the clouds, yes, yes, and I could spin something up. Yeah, everything could be work on our IaaS infrastructure services. The choice made by the client is made about the data sensitivity, so you want to keep data and control it, potentially or sovereign yeah, yeah, like Cloud Act or something like that, the sensitivity of the data At the upper level for the PaaS level platform.

Speaker 2: 6:21

at the service level, we have to deal with the architecture of the application which database is needed, which Kafka action system, security system, specialized, and we have to assess all the architecture to put this architecture on our PaaS solution linked to the solution, on-premise or in PaaS.

Speaker 1: 6:48

Scalar, and so is a lot of it regulation-driven. Ie the government has a certain requirement to keep X financial services data here, or is that what you're trying to solve a lot of it for for your customers, or is it?

Speaker 2: 7:03

Yes, we have this kind of need with the regulation. We have NIS2. N-i-s-2. Yes, we have D-O-R-R for the banks. We have RGPD. Oh wow, you've got all these certifications? Yes, we have. Also for the French administration, we have the regulation name, not exactly a regulation, but an orientation cloud au centre for the administration to be on secnum cloud, which is the qualification.

Speaker 1: 7:34

Yes, yeah, I saw this.

Speaker 2: 7:35

Secnum cloud. Yeah, we are secnum cloud.

Speaker 1: 7:37

Yes, when I mean we are, what does that mean? Ah, okay, we are Secnum Cloud. What does that mean when?

Speaker 2: 7:41

I mean, I have a trusted cloud. It's a specific term used by ANSI, Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Système d'Information in France, which delivers a specific qualification for the clouder to be at the highest level of cybersecurity, resilience, organizational, typically French investor. Okay, and we have this qualification, like three others clouders in France at this moment, and in Germany we have the equivalent with C5. Oh wow, In Italy and in Spain we have this kind of equivalent you haven't built out there yet, but you've got the certifications you need to land.

Speaker 1: 8:21

Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 2: 8:21

Three years ago, oh, that In Italy and Spain we have this kind of equivalent. You haven't built out there yet, but you've got the certifications you need to land. Yes, yes, yes, three years ago, oh that's amazing.

Speaker 1: 8:25

Yeah, and so I was reading. You were one of the first providers, I think in France, to get this SECNUM, which is….

Speaker 2: 8:32

We are the third clouders. To get this qualification. There's only three Four at this moment. Okay. To get this qualification, there's only three, four at this moment, okay. But the first was Auskel, second is OVH, third is US.

Speaker 1: 8:47

This is a I'm familiar in the United States. They have certain cloud restrictions for it's called FedRAMP, which is the federal government basically put in place that you need to be FedRAMP certified and then what happens is a lot of the states look to that to see if and sort of becomes this very difficult certification to get. Is that similar? Is that what the SECNUM piece was?

Speaker 2: 9:10

SECNUM Cloud qualification yes, it's a qualification only for the insurer like us to be an answer to the needs of regulation, of regulation conformity yes. On sovereignty data.

Speaker 1: 9:26

Resiliency, sovereign security, all those pieces.

Speaker 2: 9:29

Yeah, and trusted infrastructure for the companies, because some companies need and want to have a trusted infrastructure.

Speaker 1: 9:37

Absolutely, and I'm assuming that is solved for the government agencies and companies, but also your banks, anyone that's servicing those government agencies, have those requirements put on them as well. Yes, so health sector also. Health as well, of course.

Speaker 2: 9:53

Yeah, yeah, we have a qualification HDS hosting health data.

Speaker 1: 9:59

Okay, yes, it's another qualification, and so your customers. Who are you servicing? Is it a mix between private sector, public sector? Is there industries that you service? More so than others.

Speaker 2: 10:13

We have 30% of public sector. 30? Yeah, 30%.

Speaker 1: 10:18

The company was founded in 2017, which is good, very good to have this growth.

Speaker 2: 10:24

We have industry Veolia Suez, of course. Big company like that Naval and so on.

Speaker 1: 10:32

Yeah, fantastic. So 70% private sector. Yeah, and you're growing, yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:38

Scaling Private sector is growing at this moment? Yes, because we are at this moment we are the only one trusted cloud to get the qualification for the pass for the platform as a service. Yes, so we have a lot of company and ISV company. We need to have a level of Kubernetes solution and we are the only one to offer that at this moment and so, as the head of the strategy, what are you looking for for the next three years?

Speaker 1: 11:08

Is it more? Do you need capital to buy infrastructure, to buy compute stacks, and are people asking for like GPUs? Are they asking for inference? Is it data center space? Do you build data centers? What do you? How does it play out?

Speaker 2: 11:24

Yeah, the main orientation for the next three years are to dip in AI solution. We have already GPU, lm at the service and so on, but we have to dip and offer more and more solution for our customer. Secondly, we have to improve the catalog of our product. We would like to be an equivalent, a maximum equivalent, at the hyperscaler offer with a lot of product. Cloud product yes, and we want to open to Europe. Okay, and we target Germany. Germany is a great option to Europe. Okay, and we target Germany.

Speaker 1: 12:01

Germany is a great option, I think.

Speaker 2: 12:03

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:03

Similar requirements from it's not SEC number. These requirements are very structured. C5 is the equivalent.

Speaker 2: 12:10

Yes, italy and Spain and Belgium, because Belgium is a turning place for the lobbying of cloud in Europe, as we've just landed in Spain.

Speaker 1: 12:22

In fact, manu's gone and built us out there and we've also gone and built out in Italy, yeah, so we have to work together, of course. Yeah, we will connect our customers to you and help them on-ramp and add all these services. So what you're saying, from what you're saying, it's innovation is the key. Innovation yeah, so is that. Engineers, developers, that's um yeah, and do you? Do you also need the compute stacks, like the hardware, do you? Yeah, is that constantly?

Speaker 1: 12:49

IBM, cisco, yes, hp, nvidia, nvidia yes, we have not cheap, yeah, yeah less cheapest exactly so. There's a capital component. I think about this Our investments. We're constantly getting questioned on CapEx and OpEx and all these different pieces, but the capital expenditure is going to be for the compute stacks. You've got engineers and developers. You'll have new data. How many data centers do you live in? Do you have your own data?

Speaker 2: 13:17

centers.

Speaker 1: 13:18

No, we are renting white spaces and we put everything in it, and how many DCs do you operate we?

Speaker 2: 13:26

have four DCs at this moment. Perfect. We are going to open a new DC in 150 kilometers just this year and we would like to open in Frankfurt a region, a new region in 27.

Speaker 1: 13:41

Okay, and so your customers are pulling you there. We will on-ramp you wherever you land. You let us know, we'll connect you in so that all the customers can access you and you can get that sort of hybrid cloud playing out. I'd love you to share anything that you wanted to share with anyone that's listening, anything that's interesting that you've come across with your company or where the market's heading. It's a weird place at the moment. There's lots of change going on, but I think you're being insulated to France, so maybe any perspective that folks have around the French environment.

Speaker 2: 14:14

What's different about France? Yeah, and the other countries, yeah, we see global the culture, the culture is different.

Speaker 2: 14:19

Yes, the culture, the culture is different. Yes, the need is a little bit different. In France, we start the cloud transformation process, so the client needs to have infrastructure mainly, and start to want to have platform as a service solution. In Germany, for example, they need mainly platform as a service, not cloud, not only infrastructure as a service. Okay, so the culture is different. The way to work, the support has to be service. Okay, so the culture is different. The way to work, the support has to be different. Okay, so in Italy it's another culture also. More regulation in Germany, more regulation also in Italy.

Speaker 1: 15:05

Different yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:05

Yeah, but differently it's not. And in France we have the ANSI and SacNum Cloud. It's another culture to be able to protect our data. We have to find the way to be exactly pertinent about the offer for these different countries. Innovation, ai security network and with Megapod, for example, and with us, is very important in the way to go to the innovation and AI solution.

Speaker 1: 15:40

All right, so let me pivot, asking you a question about your experience in the public sector and now the private. Yeah, which do you prefer? What would you recommend? For someone coming up in the industry.

Speaker 2: 15:53

In public sector. It's very, very interesting you would have been fascinated. Yes, yeah, I work three years for each administration because I would like to change. I start the transformation, I put the things on the road and when it is running, I wanted to change it to discover another administration. So I had a great chance to deal with the cloud transformation of interior justice ecology. It was very, very interesting, yes, but now I wanted to really to change. In the same day I can deal with use cases for Veolia, for RATP, sncf, edf, so different.

Speaker 2: 16:38

So many different, so many use cases with capability in Cloud Temple to bring value to the client, Because we are 300 people engineers yes, 300. And their capability is to be able to deliver cloud product rapidly in a few months.

Speaker 1: 17:02

Oh wow, so you would build a specific cloud for that particular company, not a specific cloud?

Speaker 2: 17:07

One industrial cloud. Okay, yes, so it's a true cloud we innovate and we put many other products on this cloud. Okay, yes, so it's a true cloud, but we innovate and we put many other products on this cloud. On cloud. Yes, it's the same industrial cloud for all the clients. Yes, but we deal with a project leader, with an architect, to bring value to the clients, to be able to use all these industrial products on our cloud.

Speaker 1: 17:31

So it's like a managed service function that you would offer.

Speaker 2: 17:33

Yeah, yeah, we offer a managed service too.

Speaker 1: 17:35

Yes, so you can manage the whole piece. You deliver the cloud, you deliver the migration, you manage all those pieces, you connect it up to AWS or Azure or GCP.

Speaker 2: 17:43

Exactly, we deal with the audit, study, analysis, migration and manage of the service.

Speaker 1: 17:49

Yeah, very cool. Okay, and for people coming up in the industry what do you recommend? You like this industry? Yeah, you think it's what's the future hold. Why would you get into it For?

Speaker 2: 18:00

the industry, for the sorry private sector. So that means health industry, banks and so on. What they need at this moment is cybersecurity yes, protection, conformity First, security and resilience and, in the same way, the same level, value, value, so that means innovation, cloud product that can fit their business objective. So who have to manage these three levels for our clients and public sector and with the eye, yes, and the value is.

Speaker 1: 18:36

it's important you mention that because you can get secure, resilient in all these pieces.

Speaker 2: 18:41

Yes.

Speaker 1: 18:42

But if you can't deliver some value to the customer, if it's too expensive or doesn't solve a problem. One thing that I am noticing and we certainly hear this is there are horses for courses from applications, depending upon either which cloud or whether it's on premise, and so forth. From a cost perspective, you can do different things, but also, obviously, the regulation component comes into it. We're excited here in France. It's cool to see the industry. We've got our event on tonight, so that's exciting, bringing everyone together, which is fun. But we want to land wherever you land and keep bringing your customers connecting your fun. But we want to land wherever you land and keep bringing your customers connecting your customers. And as you expand globally, we're in all those regions. We're in Germany, we're in Madrid, we're in Milan. So, yeah, when you land in these locations, we'd love to support you.

Speaker 2: 19:25

Yeah, thanks a lot. We need you, we need Megapod, to succeed in our objective and to gain value for the company for our company and also for you and and to bring and to bring value to our clients. It's, uh, mandatory to work together oh, we love this.

Speaker 1: 19:39

Yeah, we appreciate it. Thanks. Yeah, yeah, thank you thank you cheers bye.