OpenDataSoft, a fast-growing startup in the area of publishing, visualizing and sharing OpenData online, has just announced a partnership with ‘French cloud’ provider Numergy. The partnership will make OpenDataSoft available on Numergy, aka France’s ‘sovereign cloud’, enabling both their public and private clients to put the information utilized in OpenDataSoft’s solution in a cloud environment that addresses these clients’ increased security and confidentiality needs.
In commenting on the deal, OpenDataSoft president Jean-Marc Lazard added “In offering our clients the ability to host their data in Numergy’s cloud, we can guarantee their requirements around (data) localisation when necessary”.
Numergy Development Director Alexandre Steiner also pointed out that the deal will also enable OpenDataSoft to benefit from Numergy’s reseller network, helping the startup to increase their presence in France and across Europe.
After having won Etalab’s Dataconnexions two years ago, OpenDataSoft has gone from strength to strength, signing big contracts with the likes of Veolia Environnement and the Ile-de-France region, quickly achieving profitability and establishing themselves as one of the biggest up-and-comers in the area of open data innovation. Although Numergy will probably never grow into a French AWS or Azure, the heightened concerns over data sovereignty means that there will be companies both big and small that will choose services where their data remains on French (or their respective country’s) soil. This deal will help OpenDataSoft give extra reassurance to current and potential customers, particularly those in the public sphere, that the data used in their solution will remain in France.