The French Defense Procurement Agency Selects the Consortium Led by Atos for Project Artemis, Phase II

(Source: ATOS; issued May 23, 2019)

PARIS --- As part of the second phase of Project Artemis[1], Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, has been selected, alongside its strategic partners – Capgemini and the CEA – to deliver a prototype of a Big Data platform to the French Defense Procurement Agency (Direction Générale de l’Armement, DGA)[2]. Project Artemis aims to provide the French Ministry of the Armed Forces with a sovereign « infostructure » for massive data storage and management.



The exploitation of more and more numerous and diverse data is a major challenge to maintain operational control of the French armed forces. Project Artemis, launched in November 2017 by the DGA, aims to meet operational needs through use cases that will facilitate the management and decision-making process of the Army’s various services. Project Artemis aims to provide France with a bulk data processing capability to enable it to act independently in the fields of military intelligence, operational command, and in the digital space.



To address the industrial, sovereignty and innovation challenges of the project, the consortium led by Atos – already selected by DGA for the phase I – was selected to take part in the second phase of Project Artemis:



-- Atos, leader of the consortium, will design the sovereign platform. It will include the physical High-Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure with its BullSequana servers, the infostructure, i.e. a collaborative application development environment or software forge; as well as the various security aspects. Atos will also provide its expertise in data science and will develop three use cases focused on intelligence and information processing.



-- Capgemini brings its ability to develop and implement artificial intelligence at scale by integrating innovative partners. Capgemini will develop three use cases in the fields of cybersecurity, health services and predictive maintenance. The group will also be in charge of the creation of the "software factory" which will allow Artemis users to develop their own products.



-- The CEA is involved in several use cases and in securing the infostructure. The CEA brings its scientific expertise and competencies, particularly in the fields of high-performance computing, cybersecurity, and semantic analysis of text and images.



The consortium also relies on a set of academic partners (ENS Paris-Saclay and UTC Compiègne), medium-sized enterprises (Bertin Technologies) and startups.



At the end of the second development phase[3] of Project Artemis, six use cases[4] will enable the different entities of the Ministry of the Armed Forces to take advantage of new capabilities resulting from digital technologies for knowledge-sharing, better monitoring of soldiers’ health, predictive maintenance of equipment, treatment and visualization of strategic and tactical information. The approach relies heavily on agile and incremental methodologies to stay as close as possible to innovations and user needs.



“Our consortium is now at the heart of a program which will enable the Ministry of the Armed Forces to maintain its information system at the highest technological level. We are answering Artemis’ needs with powerful and secure technologies, resulting from Atos’ R&D approach, unique in Europe, with the association of the two biggest computer services companies in Europe, together with the CEA, and the ability to capture French innovation through a sovereign ecosystem. This positioning and sovereign infostructure will prove decisive in anchoring the strategic autonomy of France et will contribute to a long-term European vision and ambition in AI for defense,” says Daniel le Coguic, Senior Vice-President for Big Data & Security at Atos France.





[1] ARTEMIS: Architecture for Processing and Massive Exploitation of Multi-Source Information (in French: Architecture de Traitement et d’Exploitation Massive de l’Information multi-Sources)



[2] The French Defense Procurement Agency is the French Government Defense procurement and technology agency responsible for the program management, development and purchase of weapon systems for the French military.



[3] The second phase of the Artemis project aims to: design a sovereign architecture for massive data processing and exploitation; develop the infostructure (a multi-level security software platform that will support the new data processing system); shorten development cycles and accelerate the implementation of new uses; foster innovation within a sovereign ecosystem.



[4] Planning and predictive maintenance, knowledge sharing and synthesis, carrier mobility, staff health status, processing and cross-referencing of heterogeneous data, network analysis.





Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with over 110,000 employees in 73 countries and annual revenue of over € 11 billion. European number one in Cloud, Cybersecurity and High-Performance Computing, the Group provides end-to-end Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud, Big Data, Business Applications and Digital Workplace solutions.



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French Defence Procurement Agency Selects Thales to Expand Big Data Capabilities of the Armed Forces

(Source: Thales; issued May 23, 2019)

Digitalisation is gaining ground in every aspect of the combat operations conducted by French forces, but the digital transformation goes well beyond what is visible on the battlefield, increasingly affecting everything from logistic support and maintenance to intelligence systems, predictive analysis, operational information and communication systems, cybersecurity, training and simulation.



Thales is a recognised player in Big Data and intends to support the French armed forces ministry’s digital development, which is gaining pace under France’s 2019–25 defence spending plan.



Thales, in partnership with Sopra Steria, is delighted to have been selected by the DGA to implement the second phase of the innovative ARTEMIS partnership programme, which will improve the platform’s capabilities and extend its scope of application. As part of this build phase, Thales will test the solution in the areas of cybersecurity, intelligence, image processing and maritime situational awareness.



This demonstrator includes Big Data processing capabilities and calls for the development of specific processing algorithms and a user interface for presenting the results. It will be rolled out progressively at four sites. Ultimately, the platform will be used by the French border agency, justice system and homeland security, and will also be available to other government agencies.



Working with an ecosystem of 80 SMEs and larger companies, Thales is dedicated to supporting the French defence ministry’s ambitions to ensure that operators have the information they need at every decisive moment. Through this programme, Thales is once again demonstrating its high-tech expertise, particularly in the areas of Big Data, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.



“Building our partnership with Thales based on complementary competencies unites the dynamism of small innovative companies and the vision of two larger partner firms striving towards digital sovereignty. Our past experiences give us a full knowledge of military professions but also an expertise in civil technology which is experiencing a boom of innovation,” said Laurent Giovachini, Deputy General Manager, Sopra-Steria.



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