02 Dec Cloud Adoption in Europe
Cloud technology is at the heart of the fourth industrial revolution, helping businesses and organisations innovate, grow and compete on a global scale. The cloud can drive significant progress in healthcare, transport, finance, government and education – all of which can open new opportunities and improve the quality of life for citizens across Europe.
Despite the advantages of the cloud, recent studies have shown that cloud adoption in Europe lags that of many other developed regions.
A study published by the Asia Cloud Computing Association notes that while the UK and Germany are advanced in terms of cybersecurity and business sophistication, they lag behind Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore in terms of good practice concerning privacy, intellectual property protection and broadband quality. In the same vein, the Business Software Alliance’s 2016 Global Cloud Computing Scorecard notes that the United States is ahead of most European countries in IT readiness and the prevention of cybercrime.
To be sure, there are several striking examples of European businesses whose use of the cloud has driven transformation. ThyssenKrupp Elevator is a case in point; the company’s use of a cloud based solution to predict potential problems and provide fixes before they occur gives the company an advantage that its competitors cannot match. Europe needs more businesses to embrace the use of the cloud in similar ways.
Building trust in cloud technology, the organisations providing it, and the regulations surrounding it, is essential to accelerating uptake in Europe. In the first instance, concerns regarding security, law enforcement access to data, privacy and control must be thoughtfully addressed. More broadly, there is a need for potential cloud users to understand the benefits cloud technologies offer.