Scaleway, a French subsidiary of telecoms group Iliad, has been chosen to host France’s national Health Data Hub, replacing Microsoft Azure under a contract announced on April 23, 2026. The decision follows a 350-criterion sovereignty-led tender, and Microsoft’s hosting of the platform since its 2019 launch is scheduled to end between late 2026 and early 2027.
Scaleway Beats Microsoft for the French Health Data Hub
Paris named Scaleway, a subsidiary of telecoms group Iliad, as the new host of the Plateforme des données de santé on April 23, 2026. The Health Data Hub, the public body that aggregates anonymised records of nearly every interaction in the French health system, oversaw the contest. Microsoft Azure has held the role since 2019, when the hub was first created.
Scaleway is part of Groupe Iliad, the French telecoms group best known for its consumer brand Free. The selection covers the main database of the National Health Data System (SNDS), the state insurance ledger that researchers use to study treatments, drug outcomes and hospital activity at a national scale. Under the deal, Scaleway’s platform will serve as the secure environment that researchers tap into. The infrastructure will sit in Europe, but not necessarily inside France, per Scaleway.
Industry estimates have placed the contract value at around €6 million over four years, although the Health Data Hub has not disclosed the price. By contrast, Scaleway’s more recent European Commission win is a separate €180 million sovereign cloud contract shared with OVHcloud, STACKIT and Post Telecom. That EC contract had been awarded only days before the Health Data Hub announcement. Scaleway’s two April wins share the same sovereign-cloud playbook. They also reflect a structural shift in how France buys its public infrastructure.
Far more than a public procurement contract, this decision represents a genuine technological partnership. Let’s reinforce our strategic autonomy!
Scaleway chief executive Damien Lucas made the comments in the company’s release announcing the selection. The release also tied Scaleway’s two April 2026 wins to a single sovereign-clouds strategy that extends beyond healthcare.
The 350-Criterion Firewall That Locked Microsoft Out
The April tender was structured around more than 350 technical criteria covering safety, resilience, performance and the ability to operate at scale. The framework put Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure at a structural disadvantage from the start. Scaleway’s parent Iliad and the French government had spent years building the case that the Azure hosting left patient data exposed to US legal demands.
Two US legal levers sat at the centre of that case. The CLOUD Act and provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) let US authorities compel disclosure of data held by American cloud providers, even when that data sits on European servers. France’s data protection authority, the CNIL, had raised reservations about Microsoft’s hosting of the hub back in 2019. A 2024 French law now requires sovereign-grade hosting for sensitive public data, which is also the regime Scaleway is moving toward. Scaleway already holds the HDS certification that France mandates for hosting health data, and is working toward SecNumCloud qualification, the sovereign-grade cloud standard explained on the SecNumCloud trust standard page from France’s cybersecurity agency ANSSI.
Doctolib Stays on AWS as Scrutiny Mounts
While Scaleway collects the Health Data Hub, France’s largest concentration of patient records sits elsewhere on Amazon Web Services. Doctolib, the country’s dominant medical appointment booking platform, holds records relating to around 50 million people, approximately 70% of the French population and information on 500,000 healthcare professionals.
Doctolib has so far resisted calls to relocate that data to a European provider. The company argues that no domestic or European alternative currently matches the scale and reliability of US hyperscalers. The same US legal frameworks that prompted the scrutiny of Microsoft’s Azure hosting, the CLOUD Act and FISA, also reach the data Doctolib stores on AWS.
Doctolib’s legal position was tested in France before. Allegations of unauthorised data transfer abroad were resolved in the company’s favour by the Conseil d’État, France’s highest administrative court, and Doctolib has since moved some data to S3NS, a Thales-Google joint venture.
| System | Cloud host | Records held |
|---|---|---|
| Health Data Hub (PDS) | Microsoft Azure, moving to Scaleway | Anonymised national health records for research |
| Doctolib | Amazon Web Services | ~50 million patients and 500,000 practitioners |
The side-by-side shows what the government is willing to pry open, and what it isn’t. The Hub is a research-facing platform built around anonymised records, while Doctolib is a booking system built around identified patients. The Scaleway award removes Microsoft from the Hub while leaving Doctolib’s AWS arrangement untouched.
A Europe-Wide Pull-Back From US Cloud
France’s Scaleway award is one move in a broader European pivot away from US public-sector cloud providers. In April 2026 the European Commission handed a €180 million sovereign cloud contract to a consortium of Scaleway, OVHcloud, STACKIT and Luxembourg’s Post Telecom. Germany’s state of Schleswig-Holstein is moving 30,000 government workstations off Microsoft Windows and Office and onto Linux and LibreOffice. The state expects to save more than €15 million in annual licence fees.
France’s domestic contest tracks the same arc. In 2024, France passed a law calling for sovereign-grade hosting for sensitive public data. The revised tender criteria effectively excluded Microsoft from contention, making the April selection the first large payoff of that legislative push.
Other French systems carry the same sovereignty question, with mixed answers. The European Parliament has replaced Google with the French search engine Qwant on thousands of internal systems. France’s secure messaging platform Tchap, used by ministers and civil servants, was recently compromised when a hacker took control of a user account. The Direction interministérielle du Numérique (DINUM) said no stored messages were accessed, and the breach sharpened the government’s push for the local encrypted messaging app Olvid.
- France Health Data Hub: moving from Microsoft Azure to Scaleway, awarded April 23, 2026
- European Commission: €180 million sovereign cloud contract awarded to Scaleway, OVHcloud, STACKIT and Post Telecom
- Schleswig-Holstein: 30,000 government workstations shifting off Microsoft to Linux and LibreOffice
The Sovereignty Trade-Off the French Government Can’t Dodge
Scaleway taking over the Health Data Hub doesn’t close the sovereignty question. The country’s other large reservoir of patient data, Doctolib’s AWS-hosted booking system, sits under the same US legal frameworks that prompted the Microsoft scrutiny. The largest commercial pool of French patient data still routes through a US hyperscaler.
French officials face a structural dilemma that the new award has sharpened. Scaleway’s roadmap toward SecNumCloud qualification gives it a path to handle the Hub’s sensitive records. Doctolib argues that no domestic or European alternative currently matches AWS’s scale and reliability. That argument bought the Conseil d’État ruling that resolved an earlier data-transfer case in Doctolib’s favour.
The Hub will move to Scaleway between late 2026 and early 2027. Doctolib has given no indication of a similar relocation. The next test of the policy is whether Doctolib, or another large French operator, follows the same path.
- ~50 million patients’ records on Doctolib’s AWS infrastructure
- Late 2026 to early 2027 for Scaleway to take over the Health Data Hub
- 350+ technical criteria shaped the Scaleway selection
Scaleway’s Health Data Hub contract covers the platform’s research database, not the operational patient data sitting outside its scope. Doctolib’s continued use of AWS keeps that pool outside the sovereign-hosting framework that drove the Scaleway selection.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the French Health Data Hub?
The Plateforme des données de santé (PDS), the country’s national Health Data Hub, is a public platform created in 2019 to host anonymised French health records for research. It has run on Microsoft Azure since launch and is scheduled to move to Scaleway between late 2026 and early 2027 under a deal announced on April 23, 2026.
Why is France moving the Health Data Hub off Microsoft?
French authorities, including the data protection authority CNIL, raised concerns as early as 2019 that hosting the platform with a US provider left it exposed to the CLOUD Act and FISA provisions. A 2024 French law calling for sovereign-grade hosting for sensitive public data, together with a revised 2025 tender process, drove the switch.
How much will the Scaleway contract be worth?
Financial terms have not been publicly disclosed. Industry estimates cited in reporting place the value at around €6 million over four years.
What about Doctolib?
Doctolib, which operates France’s dominant medical appointment booking platform, holds records for around 50 million people and 500,000 healthcare professionals. Its infrastructure remains on Amazon Web Services, under the same US legal frameworks that just cost Microsoft the Health Data Hub hosting role. The Conseil d’État, France’s highest administrative court, previously resolved data-transfer allegations in Doctolib’s favour.
