A ministry qualifies a SecNumCloud provider for five years. At renewal, the team finds managed volumes export only in proprietary format, exit assistance is billed without guaranteed delay, and incremental backups are not restorable separately. Cloud was sovereign; exit was not.
SecNumCloud answers protection against extraterritorial access — not ease of leaving. Reversibility is contracted and tested before the first euro spent.
Six-point reversibility grid
| Point | Question | Green signal | Red signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Formats | Open standards? | S3, OVF, SQL, K8s YAML | Vague "on request" export |
| Delays | Restitution SLA | Written max days | "Best effort" |
| Assistance | Exit support | Included or flat fee | Absent or off-quote |
| Deletion | Erasure proof | Destruction certificate | Vague clause |
| Costs | Outbound transfer | Negotiated cap | Punitive tariff |
| Status | Qualification renewal | ANSSI watch | Silence |
Test scenario before commitment
Provision minimal representative environment. Export VM, database, object storage via documented procedures. Restore at second provider per target. Time and cost outbound transfer plus labor. Archive proof for supervisory authority or internal audit.
Cross-check Cloud reversibility and SecNumCloud criteria.
Lock-in beyond contract
Managed services (DBaaS, load balancer, integrated IAM), proprietary Terraform, undocumented private network, federated identities complicate exit even at serious qualified provider.
Anticipate: portable infrastructure as code from day one, data in standard formats (PostgreSQL dump, not only opaque snapshot), exit runbook updated semiannually.
The peak: sovereign at entry, hostage at exit
Decide and move forward without blind spots
Negotiate reversibility annex in SecNumCloud contract before signing. Run migration test on representative environment before critical production. Budget outbound transfer in business case. Monitor ANSSI qualification status. Compare via directory and our guides.
Frequently asked questions
Does SecNumCloud mandate reversibility?
Framework and public procurement yes in principle; practical level = contract + formats.
What to ask before signing?
Formats, delays, assistance, certified deletion, costs, plan if qualification lost.
Technical vs legal reversibility?
Both: GDPR right + real export capacity.
Does SecNumCloud guarantee no lock-in?
No — test migration; managed services create dependency.
Negotiate exit on entry day — after, you lose leverage.