TelQuel: You led Méditel for some time before its acquisition by Orange. What lessons did you learn from this experience?
Michel Paulin: First and foremost, I would say it was a very enriching experience, both professionally and personally. Personally, because my family and I truly enjoyed Morocco, particularly life in Casablanca. Professionally, it was fascinating to transition from my telecommunications work in France to contributing to significant new projects. We launched 4G and fiber optics, which are now pivotal in Morocco.
At Méditel, we were deeply involved in various digitalization initiatives. We had the capability to offer innovative services and witnessed firsthand how these innovations can drive economic growth.
Did your time at Méditel, and in Morocco in general, influence your approach to management and innovation at your new company, OVHcloud?
I’m not sure if we can talk about influence because we’re dealing with two different markets. However, all experiences, regardless of where they occur, enrich one’s perspective. It’s evident that Morocco is now a dynamic economy. It serves as a bridge to the African continent, especially from Europe. Having experienced it firsthand reinforces this perception.
Today, OVHcloud is already a European player, but we have a global footprint. We are present in Asia, Europe, and North America. We have chosen to establish our presence worldwide. In this regard, we are truly proud to announce our partnership with Maroc Datacenter. This marks our first investment on the African continent, with a data center that will be our first in Africa.
This data center, set to open this summer, will enable us to offer services from Moroccan soil, addressing specific needs for data localization and compliance with sensitive and personal data.
What changes have you observed in the telecommunications sector in Morocco since your departure?
In the Moroccan market, I prefer not to comment as I don’t feel I have the legitimacy to speak on it. However, it’s clear that today, at least in Europe, the telecom market is not experiencing the same growth as during my time there, when we saw very strong growth in both mobile and fixed services.
The cloud market is an extremely dynamic and innovative market.
The question now is more about what innovations telecom operators are bringing. It’s been the GAFAMs (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) who have been able to create more innovations, particularly in smartphones and other areas, and thus capture a portion of the growth and value.
I would say that’s the challenge for telecoms today. This is why I’m very pleased to be in the cloud market because it’s an extremely dynamic and innovative space. At OVHcloud, we are constantly innovating, which allows us to continue growing at double-digit rates quarter after quarter.
Speaking of the cloud, how can the concept of digital sovereignty apply to African countries?
There’s a lot of talk about sovereignty, and it’s true that the term has become quite trendy, perhaps even overly so. For us, the definition of sovereignty is about freedom. You are sovereign when you are a state, possibly a company or an individual, and you have the ability to choose transparently and fully aware of the consequences of your choices. You lose sovereignty when you no longer have choices, when you are under constraint.
« What does data sovereignty mean? Data belongs to you. »
This is a perspective that, in my opinion, is completely different from the notions of sovereignty or protectionism. I believe it’s important for citizens, governments, and states to control their destiny.
What does data sovereignty mean? Data belongs to you. This is the European conception under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and it’s increasingly becoming an African conception as well. It’s not the Chinese or American conception. When we talk about data sovereignty, it’s crucial to ask: how do we protect data? What data? Who has access to this data?
What aspects of the OVHcloud model could be beneficial for digital development in Morocco?
We position ourselves as a provider that allows customers to decide the level of sovereignty they want within a regulatory framework. Why? Firstly, because we are European, we are shielded from extraterritorial laws. For instance, certain US laws may allow US authorities to access data located in Morocco without informing the data owners.
As a European entity, we are not subject to such laws and there is no extraterritoriality. Our goal is to provide customers with all the tools they need to decide on the level of cybersecurity and legal protection they wish to have.
It’s important to note that some legal protections are mandated by local regulations, and Morocco currently has various regulations in place to ensure data protection.
How many companies in Morocco are interested in cloud computing?
I think virtually all companies are concerned with cloud computing. That’s not yet the case in Morocco. The most advanced market in the world is the American market, where almost every company, regardless of sector, now uses cloud solutions.
The 6,000 clients we have in Morocco today are mostly tech companies. Why? Because if you’re a software publisher, you need to « SAASify » (transform into SAAS, software as a service, a software solution hosted in the cloud and operated outside of the organization or company by a third party, also known as a service provider). Generally, to start your activities, you need clear solutions that will give you the best return on investment.
Today, technology is advancing so rapidly that to have artificial intelligence, you need enormous capabilities, access to GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) infrastructures, which can cost millions or even tens of millions of euros. It’s a considerable investment.
99% of companies, whether Moroccan or European, cannot afford this. They need to rent high-performance infrastructures by the hour or minute. OVHcloud enables these companies to access AI solutions, data platforms, virtualization, and containerization.
But aren’t some hesitant to place their data in the cloud and to use virtual machines?
The migration to the cloud certainly raises some concerns, particularly regarding cybersecurity factors. However, I believe that today, being on-premises doesn’t guarantee security either. We see that most hacking incidents primarily affect on-premises systems.
Of course, it’s natural to be apprehensive about delegating part of your infrastructure to third parties. In fact, we believe the future of cloud computing lies in hybrid cloud solutions. This means having both on-premises systems, edge systems, private systems, and public cloud systems.
Choosing this complementarity, with some systems remaining on-site in your infrastructure and others in the cloud, allows for much greater flexibility, cost-effectiveness, scalability, and access to the latest improvements and innovations.
OVHcloud will begin by developing « local zones » in Morocco. Can you explain the difference between a local zone and a data center?
It’s a small data center. The only difference is that in local zones, you don’t have all of OVHcloud’s services. In particular, you don’t have private cloud services, which often include VMware (virtualization software) and Nutanix Manager (infrastructure automation tool, which reduces costs and speeds up IT services), which are more complex services.
So we will start with the local zone in Morocco, and then we can expand and grow into a data center depending on how effective we are. We have several models of data centers. We have local zones, which are small data centers. We also have what we call mono data centers, which are data centers in megawatts. In fact, one of our ambitions is to reach at least one megawatt in Morocco.
What are your projections regarding your establishment in Morocco?
We have a number of projects underway, but at the moment, I can’t provide more details. We have a strong partnership with Maroc Datacenter. We already have an ecosystem of startups and tech companies that we collaborate with. We have partnerships with many integrators. I believe we’ve established an ecosystem that provides us with a solid foundation for successful development in Morocco. That’s why we have additional projects in the works.
You were at GITEX, where countless innovations are being presented… Can we say, based on what is found here, that Morocco is on the right track in terms of digital and technological development?
Undoubtedly, and the success of this fair demonstrates it. Morocco’s commitment is very clear: to make the country a gateway to Africa in technological matters. For me, this is something remarkable. I also believe that the Morocco Digital 2030 strategy is ambitious and makes sense. It is in the best interest of Morocco as a whole to benefit from this support, which I find visionary.
Written by Ziad Drissi, edited in English by Eric Nielson
