European Crises Cripple Cloud Adoption

The Euro crisis, a lingering recession and stringent privacy rules will hinder cloud adoption in Europe, according to an analyst firm.

This means Europe will be at least two years behind US in embracing the various technologies that make up cloud computing, Gartner claimed.

Gartner listed four reasons why Europe will not embrace cloud as quickly as the US, including the Euro crisis’ impact on investment, the complexity and mutability of data privacy regulations, the diversity of nations across the continent  and the slow spread of EU regulations to member states.

Big opportunities

“The opportunities for cloud computing value are valid all over the world, and the same is true for some of the risks and costs,” said Paolo Malinverno, vice president at Gartner. “However, some of cloud computing’s potential risks and costs – namely security, transparency and integration – which are generally applicable worldwide, take on a different meaning in Europe.”

Despite these concerns, cloud will kick off in Europe, as demand remains high, Gartner said.

“The bottom line is that the interest in cloud is as high in Europe as it is elsewhere in the world” said David Mitchell Smith, vice president and Gartner Fellow. “While these inhibitors will certainly slow down cloud adoption in Europe, they will not stop it – the potential benefits of cloud are too attractive and the interest in its efficiency and agility are too strong to stall it for long.”

In the UK, the G-Cloud programme is gathering momentum, indicating public as well as private sector are interested in using cloudy technologies. The second iteration of the government project’s CloudStore was launched earlier this month.

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