---
sheet_format: 1.0
id: 2025-12-acces-strategie-internationale
title: "Stratégie internationale de Clever Cloud"
title_en: "Clever Cloud's international strategy"
speaker: Erwan Rougeux
with: []
date: 2025-12-11
event: "ACCES — Amazing Clever Cloud Enterprise Summit"
place: "CNIT Forest, La Défense, Paris, France"
format: talk
language: fr
duration: "11:33"
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw
slides: https://slides.wanoo.me/2025-12-acces-strategie-internationale/
topics: [digital sovereignty, international expansion, cloud, partnerships, local currency, co-construction, geopolitics]
source: "Summary written by Claude (AI) from the auto-generated YouTube captions. Not a verbatim transcript; check the recording before quoting."
review: spot-checked
review_date: 2026-10-17
---

# Stratégie internationale de Clever Cloud

**In one sentence:** Erwan Rougeux, VP International Growth at Clever Cloud, explains why the company expands abroad through local co-construction rather than the hyperscaler export model, and why sovereignty means data, money and skills, not only where servers sit.

## TL;DR
In a short pre-lunch talk, Erwan looks back on almost two years of carrying Clever Cloud's engineering work abroad. He describes a digital world more fragmented than ever, with Europe caught between US data capitalism and Chinese industrial power, and says about 85% of European digital spending goes to the United States. For him, sovereignty is not just keeping data in a local datacenter: it also means being able to pay for services in your own currency and keeping the talent to build alternatives, including competitors to Clever Cloud. Instead of the hyperscaler playbook, Clever Cloud's strategy, defined with Quentin Adam, rests on three pillars: a local partner, local investment in local currency, and reinvesting revenue in local R&D. The company is live in Morocco, Côte d'Ivoire and Kazakhstan, and is looking seriously at Canada and Southeast Asia.

## Erwan's key points
- He calls himself "a humble flag-bearer" for Clever Cloud's engineering teams abroad, a role he has held for almost two years.
- He argues the internet, once promised as open and connected, is now fragmented by region; with AI, data and digital services play a role in states, democracies and geodiplomacy (he cites recent events in Nepal).
- He rejects the saying that "the US innovates, China copies, Europe regulates": China improves on what it copies, and Europe innovates too, but that innovation goes unnoticed because Europe built its digital industry country by country.
- He says about 85% of European digital consumption goes to the United States, draining the capacity to invest locally into a vicious circle.
- Sovereignty, for him, means local data, the ability to pay in your own money (free of dollar exposure, extraterritorial laws and tariff wars) and keeping talent at home. Choice matters because any monopoly gets abused; he gives the VMware/Broadcom licensing case and recommends Vates as an alternative.
- The GAFAM model is to spend heavily, colocate in a datacenter, train support teams and "sell American, think American". Clever Cloud wants instead to adapt a Franco-European technology to each country's laws and ways of using digital.
- The three pillars: collaboration with a local ally who turns the technology into a product for that market; local investment, priced in local currency; and local R&D funded by that revenue, feeding back into the global product.
- He says he is the only person at Clever Cloud whose job is "not to make money, just to make intelligence".
- PaaS is a small but central link in the industrial chain, between datacenters and upstream providers on one side and IT services firms (ESN) and startups on the other.
- Partnerships open a two-way marketplace: French and European companies can follow Clever Cloud abroad, and partners in Kazakhstan, Morocco and Côte d'Ivoire can use the same bridge to enter Europe. He likes to call it "multi-national" in two words.

## Outline
- [0:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=10s) Opening: a quick talk before lunch; almost two years carrying Clever Cloud's work internationally.
- [0:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=56s) The internet of the early days versus today's fragmented internet, different depending on where you are.
- [1:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=101s) Cloud and AI are not abstract: data now plays a foundational and geodiplomatic role (Nepal as an example).
- [2:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=126s) Europe between two giants; pushing back on "the US innovates, China copies, Europe regulates".
- [3:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=193s) About 85% of European digital spending goes to the US: a vicious circle of impoverishment.
- [4:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=241s) Sovereignty is also the ability to pay: dollars, extraterritorial laws, tariffs; "deploy fast or die".
- [4:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=287s) Keeping talent and choice; monopolies get abused (VMware/Broadcom, Vates).
- [5:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=334s) The GAFAM expansion model versus adapting a Franco-European technology to each country.
- [6:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=378s) Pillar one: collaboration with a local partner to turn technology into a local product.
- [7:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=428s) Pillar two: local investment in local currency; pillar three: reinvesting in local R&D.
- [7:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=474s) Co-construction to "produce intelligence"; two years knocking on doors: partners, governments, academia.
- [8:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=521s) PaaS as the central link between datacenters, IT services firms and startups.
- [9:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=566s) A two-way marketplace and bridge between Europe and partner countries; "multi-national" in two words.
- [10:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=612s) Results after two years: Morocco, Côte d'Ivoire, Kazakhstan; Canada and Southeast Asia next; closing invitation.

## Notable quotes
> "l'Europe ne fait pas que réglementer, elle innove aussi" — Erwan Rougeux, [2:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=171s)
*"Europe doesn't just regulate, it innovates too."*

> "notre métier c'est du deploy fast or die" — Erwan Rougeux, [4:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=263s)
*"Our business is deploy fast or die."*

> "Du moment où il y a un monopole quelque part, il va être abusé." — Erwan Rougeux, [4:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=287s)
*"As soon as there's a monopoly somewhere, it will be abused."*

> "Si tu dois me payer en euros pour faire tourner ton cloud en Malaisie, ben j'ai perdu ma souveraineté." — Erwan Rougeux, [7:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=428s)
*"If you have to pay me in euros to run your cloud in Malaysia, I've lost my sovereignty."*

> "Je suis le seul chez Clever Cloud où je dois pas faire d'argent, je dois juste faire de l'intelligence." — Erwan Rougeux, [7:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=474s)
*"I'm the only one at Clever Cloud who doesn't have to make money; I just have to make intelligence."*

## Questions this answers
**Q: What is Clever Cloud's international strategy?**
A: Erwan describes three pillars: a local partner to adapt the technology into a product for each market, local investment priced in local currency, and reinvesting local revenue in local R&D that feeds the global product ([6:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=378s), [7:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=428s)).

**Q: What does Erwan Rougeux mean by digital sovereignty?**
A: More than hosting data locally: sovereignty also means paying for digital services in your own currency, free from dollar exposure and extraterritorial laws, and keeping the talent to build alternatives ([4:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=241s)).

**Q: How is Clever Cloud's approach different from AWS, Microsoft or Google abroad?**
A: Erwan says the hyperscalers spend heavily, colocate, train support teams and export an American way of thinking. Clever Cloud co-builds with local partners and adapts to each country's laws and usage ([5:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=334s)).

**Q: In which countries is Clever Cloud present outside Europe?**
A: As of December 2025, Erwan says Clever Cloud has deployed in Morocco, Côte d'Ivoire and Kazakhstan, and is seriously looking at Canada and Southeast Asia ([10:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=612s)).

**Q: How much of Europe's digital spending goes to the United States?**
A: Erwan puts it at about 85% in 2025, which he says drains Europe's capacity to invest and creates a vicious circle ([3:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=193s)).

**Q: Why does Clever Cloud price in local currency abroad?**
A: Because paying in euros or dollars would cost the customer its sovereignty and expose it to exchange-rate swings; local currency keeps costs predictable for everyone ([7:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDDPljaglw&t=428s)).

## Mentioned
Clever Cloud, ACCES (Amazing Clever Cloud Enterprise Summit), CNIT Forest, Quentin Adam, Steven Le Roux, GAFAM, VMware, Broadcom, Vates, DeepSeek, Donald Trump, Nepal, Malaysia, Morocco, Côte d'Ivoire, Kazakhstan, Canada, Southeast Asia, United States, China, Europe