EU China will become another big cloud computing country after the United States

In general, the United States is the cradle of topics in the field of cloud computing. However, the cloud computing situation in other regions has been gradually getting better recently. Among them, the cloud computing challenges in Europe and China have drawn much attention. In 2013, the cloud computing activities are expected to be increasingly active, facilitated by the European Union (EU), which was announced last year under the Cloud Initiative. At the same time, China also introduced a series of policies to try to promote the development of network economy such as e-commerce by increasing network users. IDC forecast in May last year that China's cloud computing spending was 208.6 billion U.S. dollars and will reach 1 billion U.S. dollars in 2016. Meanwhile, IDC predicts that in 2013, China's IT market will surpass Japan, reaching 173 billion U.S. dollars.

The EU looks forward to achieving an economic impact of 160 billion euros through the cloud computing market

At the end of September 2012, the EU unleashed the potential of cloud computing in Europe, a new strategy that aims to drive cloud computing in order to drive economic growth and create jobs. EU predicts that by 2020 it will save about 10-20% of its cost and significantly increase its productivity by taking advantage of cloud computing. The EU cloud computing market will triple in size to 800 billion euros.

According to the EU statistics, by 2020, investing in cloud computing will bring about an average annual economic benefit of 160 billion U.S. dollars to the EU, equivalent to 10% of GDP. Through this strategy, the EU will create new industries to fight against the United States and other countries, At the same time create 2.5 million to 3.8 million new jobs.

This project mainly includes the following four plans:

Establish the necessary technical standards by 2013 to ensure interoperability and data portability for cloud computing users;

In order to improve the credibility of cloud computing, support the development of certification schemes for cloud computing service providers within the EU;

Develop safe and fair terms, including cloud computing service contracts that guarantee quality of service;

The establishment of the European Cloud Partnership (ECP), through which the public agency supports the financing of cloud computing services.

Currently, data protection rules in the EU online era are also being implemented. In January 2012, the EU released the Data Protection Regulation, which will also be concerned about the concerns and concerns about using cloud computing service users' data.

EU Advantages of US Cloud Computing Anxiety

The acceleration of cloud computing strategy by the EU accelerates from the lagging use of cloud computing in Europe. According to data released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), about 24% of the citizens of Europe spend on cloud computing, a figure that is significantly below the world average of 34%. In March 2012, a report released by Gartner also showed that European companies are 2 years behind US companies in using cloud computing.

In response to the series of trends in the EU, the media give some affirmation at the same time, but also without any worries. For example, The Rude Baquette, the French risk information website, pointed out that "Europe has finally taken the initiative to improve the current lagging status of Europe in the rapidly growing cloud computing market." At the same time, the following questions are also raised:

Why is it necessary for the EU to develop technical standards?

Is it true that the European Cloud Partnership (ECP) can be an organization that helps venture and SMBs?

Ultimately, the cloud computing market is not yet dominated by large enterprises.

Finally, The Rude Baquette believes that business needs a marketplace that can be nurtured organically.

At the same time, the British version of CIO Magazine also hold the same view. The above Gartner survey also pointed out that, in fact, data protection regulations in Europe have become one of the main factors hindering the development of cloud computing in Europe. Although the US cloud computing service is also subject to the USA PATRIOT Act, European companies are at risk of breaking the law when they use U.S. cloud computing services because the law provides for the opening of data as needed.

CIO Magazine first of all give some comments on the movement of EU. "In the past, EU did not take a positive step toward cloud computing but stayed away from it. At present, EU clearly stated that the potential of cloud computing will be opened up. This is a positive message." At the same time, the report made it clear that "they are not in favor of formulating rules" and criticized the EU for intervening in the development of technical standards and other trends. For data protection law, the report pointed out the flaw in the above project, "The content of this release, does not include the plan to change the rules to achieve cloud computing services regardless of data storage locations."