It is a discreet but historic turning point for French digital sovereignty. Announced in late April 2026, the transfer of health data hosted by Microsoft to Scaleway, a 100% French cloud provider, marks a significant break with dependence on the American giants in the sector. Behind this technical decision lies a fundamental question: who should be trusted with the most sensitive medical information of 68 million French people?

A cumbersome legacy with American clouds

For several years, France, like most European countries, had massively outsourced its digital infrastructure to major American players: Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. The health sector had not escaped this trend. The National Health Data System (SNDS), which centralizes medical data and health insurance reimbursements for the entire French population, was partly hosted on Microsoft servers.

This situation had long raised legal questions, particularly around the American Cloud Act, a law adopted in 2018 that allows US authorities to access data stored by American companies, wherever it is located in the world. In other words, in theory, French health data hosted by Microsoft could be subject to an access request from US authorities, outside any European legal framework.

Scaleway: a French player at the heart of the project

Scaleway, a subsidiary of the Iliad group founded by Xavier Niel, was selected to host this sensitive data. Based in France, with data centers located on national territory, Scaleway offers a guarantee that its American competitors cannot provide: full submission to European law, and in particular to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The project is ambitious. The complete migration of the system is expected between late 2026 and early 2027. Until then, technical teams are working on a gradual transition designed to guarantee service continuity. The SNDS processes billions of medical procedures, prescriptions and reimbursements every year: even the slightest interruption would have direct consequences for the ability of researchers and caregivers to access the data they need.

Digital sovereignty: a political issue as much as a technical one

This decision is part of a broader political context. In recent years, the European Union has multiplied initiatives to reduce technological dependence on the United States and China. The European Data Act, the European Health Data Space (EHDS) and France's ANSSI SecNumCloud label are all frameworks pushing public administrations to favor sovereign solutions.

In France, the “cloud at the center” doctrine has required the state since 2021 to favor SecNumCloud-qualified cloud offerings for sensitive data. Scaleway has obtained this qualification, making it one of the few players able to claim it can host the most critical data of the French administration.

“This is not only about technology, but about a societal choice: deciding where and how our health data is stored means asserting our right to protect our most intimate information.”

What implications for patients and researchers?

For ordinary people, this change of provider will remain invisible. Data will continue to be collected in the same way, through the Carte Vitale and health insurance reimbursements. But for public health researchers, epidemiologists and medical research stakeholders, this transition is of crucial importance.

The SNDS is indeed one of the most comprehensive health datasets in the world. It makes it possible to track patient cohorts over many years, identify drug side effects on a large scale, and evaluate the effectiveness of prevention policies. Hosting this data on a sovereign cloud also means ensuring that its future use remains governed by European law, without the risk of leakage toward less protective jurisdictions.

A model other countries could follow

France is not alone in this approach. Germany has also launched similar initiatives around Gaia-X, the European cloud infrastructure project, and several EU member states are exploring sovereign hosting solutions for their administrative and health data. This global movement reflects a growing awareness: digital sovereignty has become a strategic issue on the same level as energy or defense.

For Scaleway and the French tech ecosystem as a whole, this major contract is also an international showcase. It demonstrates that a European company can compete with American giants on critical infrastructure projects, provided it has invested in the necessary certifications and technical capabilities.

What next? The next stages of the migration

The schedule provides for a migration in several phases, with rigorous testing at each stage to ensure that the data is fully transferred without loss or alteration. Independent security audits will be carried out to validate each phase. The system should be fully operational on Scaleway infrastructure by early 2027 at the latest.

This decision may mark the beginning of a broader movement to “reterritorialize” sensitive public data in France and Europe. In a world where data has become the new oil, carefully choosing where it is stored is now a sovereign act in its own right.