Strengthened security and reduced carbon emissions
Enhanced understanding of carbon impact and mitigation of rebound effects due to digital usage
Operational optimization through efficient, shared, and scalable infrastructure
Support for innovation with efficient project management, such as with eSIM
Accelerated digital transformation and meeting customer expectations for sustainability
Thales and Google Cloud collaborated to reduce the environmental impact of Thales' Cyber and Digital business, ensuring security and service availability for its customers.
Thales and Google Cloud collaborated to reduce the environmental impact of Thales' Cyber and Digital business, ensuring security and service availability for its customers.
A digital transformation guided by operational excellence
We are experts in managing secrets; our customers rely on us to protect their sensitive information and the cryptographic keys essential for securing mobile connections.
Pascal Di Girolamo
Product Marketing Director for Mobile Connectivity Solutions, Thales Cyber and Digital
As a global technology leader with over 83,000 employees in 68 countries, Thales has deployed a rigorous approach to reduce its carbon footprint through its strategy for a low-carbon future. This strategy is particularly evident within its Cyber and Digital entity, combining technological innovation with environmental responsibility, notably through a strategic partnership with Google Cloud.
In 2017, Thales' Cyber and Digital entity chose Google Cloud to support its digital transformation. "We are experts in managing secrets," explains Pascal Di Girolamo, Product Marketing Manager for Mobile Connectivity Solutions at Thales Cyber and Digital, "Our customers rely on us to protect their sensitive information and the cryptographic keys essential for securing mobile connections."
This security requirement notably led Thales to play a key role in establishing the GSMA's Security Accreditation Scheme (SAS), which defines particularly rigorous data security rules. "At the time, Google Cloud was the only cloud provider willing to take on the challenge of obtaining this demanding certification, a commitment that played a decisive role in our choice to make them our strategic partner," states Pascal Di Girolamo.
To meet the highest security requirements, Thales, in collaboration with Google Cloud, implemented a co-location infrastructure. In this model, Google Cloud provides the building and infrastructure, while only Thales employees can access the equipment for updates, thereby ensuring total control over critical security aspects.
Beyond security, we also consider the environmental aspect and are aware of potential rebound effects that public cloud infrastructure deployments can cause through significant usage growth. Google Cloud's data centers, recognized for their energy efficiency with a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) as low as 1.1 for the best among them, have allowed Thales Mobile Connectivity Solutions to significantly reduce its carbon footprint: outsourcing to the Google Cloud infrastructure enabled a reduction factor of 3 to 5, depending on the specific data centers, for Scope 2 and 3 emissions (Scope 1 being negligible in the digital sector).
Eco-design to limit rebound effects
Our R&D teams have structured their processes to ensure that eco-design is integrated and applied at every level of solution development. Since 2023, all our new products are eco-designed. This approach includes training our teams, creating eco-design communities, and adopting best practices.
One of the initial steps in eco-design involves estimating and understanding its impacts. For this, we need estimation tools from our cloud providers.
"Google Cloud goes much further than other cloud players, notably by integrating Scope 3 into its estimations to provide customers with all the useful elements to calculate their impact and better identify their levers for action," highlights Ludovic Tressol, Excellence Director for Thales Cyber and Digital. This data, accessible through the Google Carbon Footprint Service, is integrated into Jarvis, the solution developed by Thales for the global monitoring of its activities' environmental impact.
Google Cloud goes much further than other cloud players, notably by integrating Scope 3 into its measurements to provide customers with all the elements needed to calculate their impact and better identify levers for action. Google Cloud also provides water consumption indicators; we hope to leverage these soon, as carbon impact alone is not sufficient.
Ludovic Tressol
Cloud Center of Excellence Director, Thales Cyber and Digital
"Our environmental ambition is core to our activities," emphasizes François Perticara. "For years, we have been developing methodologies validated by third-party organizations to translate our ambitions into concrete actions: measuring the carbon impact of our SIM cards, product eco-design, comprehensive life cycle analyses; we were one of the firsts to do this for a digital service using a public cloud provider like Google Cloud."
eSIM: Technological innovation serving infrastructure
This holistic approach, combining operational excellence, technological innovation, and environmental responsibility, illustrates our shared vision with Google Cloud: building a connected, secure, and sustainable world.
Rémi de Fouchier
VP Strategy Marketing Innovation for Mobile Connectivity Solutions, Thales Cyber and Digital
The eSIM (embedded SIM) project perfectly illustrates this convergence of innovation and sustainability. As a dematerialized solution replacing physical SIM cards, eSIMs profoundly transform the subscriber management model for telecom operators. Beyond eliminating plastic and reducing logistical constraints, this change implies a major evolution in customer relations and distribution, notably impacting operators' physical store networks and their relationship with subscribers.
To support this evolution, Thales developed the Thales On-Demand Subscription Manager, an innovative platform hosted on Google Cloud. This scalable SaaS (Software as a Service) solution can manage millions of eSIMs and connected objects while ensuring maximum security through an extensible, hyper-resilient architecture, and advanced cryptography. "Our platform not only meets GSMA security requirements but also integrates eco-design principles to limit our environmental impact," points out Francois Perticara.
A vision for the future combining innovation and responsibility
"This holistic approach, combining operational excellence, technological innovation, and environmental responsibility, illustrates our shared vision with Google Cloud: building a connected, secure, and sustainable world," underlines Rémi de Fouchier, VP Strategy Marketing Innovation for Mobile Connectivity Solutions. Thanks to Google Cloud, Thales benefits from efficient, optimized, and highly secure infrastructures that allow it to innovate without constraints and deploy its solutions at scale while pursuing its ambitious policy of reducing the environmental footprint of its activities.
Innovation and the use of the cloud (which dematerializes infrastructure) can lead to rebound effects that must be limited through the practice of eco-design throughout all phases of the service life cycle. Eco-design begins with estimating impacts to then identify possible reductions.
Our platform not only meets GSMA security requirements but also integrates eco-design principles to limit our environmental impact.
Francois Perticara
Sustainability Director for Mobile Connectivity Solutions, Thales Cyber and Digital
Beyond reducing the impact on the environment, this ability to innovate while deploying responsible digital solutions at scale also represents a competitive advantage. "In 2024, we received over 130 specific requests related to the sustainability and environmental impact of all our products and services, with a significant percentage concerning digital – a 30% increase compared to the previous year. This acceleration confirms that environmental concern is becoming widespread among our customers, validating our historical commitment to responsible digital technology. Our ambition is to be a leader and trusted partner for our customers in sustainability, just as we are in security and privacy," concludes Francois Perticara.
Thales's Cyber and Digital entity, formed through the acquisition of Gemalto in 2019, develops innovative technologies to secure digital interactions. More than 30,000 organizations use its solutions to verify identities, manage digital access, analyze data, and protect it with advanced cryptography.
Industry: IT Security
Location: France
Products: Google Cloud, GKE Enterprise, Cloud Load Balancing, Cloud SQL, Cloud HSM, Compute Engine, Cloud Storage Buckets, Cloud Service Mesh, Carbon Footprint, Cloud Run functions, Cloud Run, Workflows
