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Digital Commissioner announces ‘G-Cloud’ for Europe

27th January 2012

The Digital Agenda Commissioner for Europe, Neelie Kroes, has announced that the European Commission will give €10m towards a new Cloud Computing Partnership, to try and help aid “flagging economies” on the continent.

The announcement was made at the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday, amidst considerable hype surrounding Europe’s current financial perils.

The Partnership will involve a new European-wide IT procurement process, much in the vein of the UK’s current G-Cloud initiative, which Kroes hopes will push new secure and cost-effective strategy towards cloud adoption on the continent.

“Cloud Computing will change our economy,” she said, about the Partnership plans.

“It can bring significant productivity benefits to all, right through to the smallest companies, and also to individuals. It promises scalable, secure services for greater efficiency, greater flexibility, and lower cost.”

“Our flagging economies need us to make the best out of this. We cannot afford anything less. We need to act to support speedy uptake of Cloud Computing in Europe.”

The Partnership has been announced following months of consultation on the subject by the Digital Commission, and a year after Kroes announced the European Cloud Computing Strategy which was set out to develop best-use of cloud computing facilities throughout European businesses.

“The results are clear,” the Digital Agenda Commissioner continued.

“Many still hesitate before the Cloud. They worry: how do I know what service I am buying? Will my data be protected? Which providers can I trust? If I don't like what I am getting, can I switch providers easily? Or, if I really don't like what I'm getting, can I easily enforce the contract through legal action?

“All these issues – standards, certification, data protection, interoperability, lock-in, legal certainty and others – are particularly troublesome for smaller companies. They are the ones who stand to benefit the most from the Cloud – but who don't have a lot of spending power, nor resources for individual negotiations with Cloud suppliers.

“Where these barriers exist, I am determined to overcome them. We have already made a start on the regulatory side: the Commission has proposed new rules for data protection in the twenty-first century, including for data in the Cloud.”

Kroes spoke in relation to new EU data protection laws outlined earlier this week by EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, which will give people and organisations the right to ask for personal data to be deleted from servers hosted by third parties, who will have to comply unless they have “legitimate” grounds to retain it.

However, some industry experts are sceptical about the proposed changes, with the US Patriot Act creating a potential loophole if the data is hosted by an American cloud provider and meaning the US government could still have the power to examine any data it deemed incriminating, even on foreign shores.

Speaking to Techworld yesterday, Andy Burton, chairman of the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), stated the new laws simply created more confusion for many about the safety of their data:

“It’s a very emotive issue, and I would argue that people are currently more concerned than informed,” he said.

“There’s a certain amount of fear, uncertainty and doubt being spread,” he added, about the topic.

How these laws affect the European Cloud Partnership plans is still unclear, however Neelie Kroes was positive about the initial stages of the proposal:

“In the first phase, the Partnership will come up with common requirements for Cloud procurement. For this it will look at standards; it will look at security; it will look at ensuring competition, not lock-in.

“In the second phase the Partnership will deliver proof of concept solutions for the common requirements.

“In the third phase reference implementations will be built.”

“Today I am inviting public authorities and industry, Cloud buyers and suppliers, to come together in a European Cloud Partnership.”

The announcement echoes the initial stages of the UK Government’s own cloud computing procurement programme, G-Cloud, which is currently in the initial decision stage for procurement, and was discussed at length by the Cabinet Office’s Advisor for ICT Futures, Liam Maxwell at Cloud Expo Europe, on Wednesday.

He outlined the Government’s aim is to cut IT contracts in the public sector to a maximum of 12 months, and to turn IT into a “commodity service” through the use of cloud computing.

The process has had some initial success, with over 400 companies bidding for new contracts.

"In two or three years' time what we now call IT, the delivery of those disaggregated services like hosting, networking, end user devices, support, all of those, will become core commodity services and will be bought "like stationery", he said.