Reach for the cloud

Never mind the crisis, if the Commissioner for Digital Agenda is to be believed, Europeans will soon be on a cloud. On Thursday 27 September, Neelie Kroes presented her long awaited European Cloud Computing Strategy. The goal is to promote the distribution of network delivered IT services in the public and private sector by introducing, as early as 2013, common standards for technical platforms, certification, supply contracts, data privacy, security criteria and users’ rights.

According to the commissioner, between now and 2020, an investment of 45 billion euros in cloud computing could increase EU GDP by as much as a trillion euros and generate 3.8 millions jobs, as well as endless other positive benefits.

Cloud computing is currently the fastest growing sector of the global information technologies market. Most of the major Internet companies (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon, Dell, Facebook, Apple etc.) are actively promoting cloud services, and operators in the sector insist that cloud technology will enable companies to make savings of between 50% to 60% on computer equipment, and 10% to 20% on overall spending.

But most European companies and users are hesitant about taking the plunge into the cloud for a range reasons relating to security, data privacy, technical compatibility and legal jurisdiction. Now the commission strategy aims to make taking that step a lot simpler.

However, in order to function correctly, cloud computing relies on stable, rapid and cheap Internet access, which has yet to become available in many member states. In January 2012,just 27.7% of Europeans directly benefited from fixed broadband subscriptions (but more than 90% had some form of internet access).

Worse still, budget cuts prompted by the need for austerity in response to the crisis have obliged governments, both on the national and the European level, to make choices that may have a negative impact on plans to widen the scope and improve the speed of telecommunications infrastructure.

Networks demand high levels of investment, and governments are currently reluctant to spend. Finally, consumer associations have voiced criticism of a lack of ambition in the Kroes plan with regard to copyright, data privacy and terms and conditions offered to users.

So Mrs Kroes cloud is not exactly rose-tinted, but it does have the merit of providing a direction and a framework for member-states, which still have major reservations about transborder data flows, and whose cloud-computing policies are still overly timid.