Bleu, a partnership between Capgemini, Orange, and Microsoft, is behind schedule in obtaining the SecNumCloud qualification for a portion of its services. Initially expected to be completed by the first half of 2026, the qualification is now projected to be finalized by the end of the year. The initiative involves hosting American technology platforms like Microsoft and Google on French-based providers. This effort has sparked considerable debate, with other similar projects such as Thales and Google's S3ns, as well as Bleu itself, vying for the same high-level cybersecurity standard. The SecNumCloud qualification is the highest level of cybersecurity certification set by ANSSI, France's National Agency for Information Systems Security. It ensures that systems are resilient to extraterritorial legal pressures and meet strict security standards. Both S3ns and Bleu aimed to achieve this certification, which involves a four-step process: J0 (acceptance of the qualification request), J1 (approval of the evaluation strategy), J2 (approval of the evaluation work), and J3 (final qualification decision). If ANSSI raises concerns, it may indicate that the requirements are too significant or costly to meet, but neither project faced such issues. S3ns completed the SecNumCloud qualification in December 2025, a process that took 17 months from the J0 milestone. Bleu, on the other hand, validated its J0 milestone in April 2025, but the J1 stage took seven months—longer than S3ns's five-month process. Initially, Bleu expected to finish the qualification by the first half of 2026, as stated during the 2025 Cybersecurity Summit and after passing the J0 milestone. However, the qualification is still ongoing, with the company aiming to complete it by the end of 2026. Bleu is working on qualifying a large range of IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and CaaS (Container as a Service) services, which are similar to what Microsoft offers through Azure. The SaaS (Software as a Service) component of Microsoft 365 will be qualified in a later phase, covering about 100 services. If Bleu achieves its goal by December 2026, the entire process will take 21 months, creating a 13-month gap between the J1 milestone and the final qualification.