Roughly 1 month ago I read a Roel Castelein’s post about the problem of Cloud Computing in Europe . I copy the first lines of it because I think it’s a good explanation and pretty ingenious metaphor about what it is happening:
When shopping on a fruits
and vegetables market, we take many things for granted; like all stall holders
speak the same language, we can pay for the goods with the same currency for a
fixed price by a standardized measurement and ordering what we want is straight
forward. But what would happen if all these conventions were absent? Like when
asking for an apple with one stall holder, we need sign language, to point out
apples with a stick (sold only by crate), pay in bags of salt. His neighboring
stall holder offers apples only by piece, measured by weight, and payable by
copper coins, and ordered by crayon drawings. This would be confusing for the
consumer, and market growth would be hindered by a lack of standardization and
transparency. This is what the Cloud Services Industry resembles at the
moment.
It’s a clear evidence of the cloud industry is
still in its infancy, and that post follows analyzing the EU Commission
policy based on a IDC survey (conduceted in behalf of EU Commission and that you
can get it here) that I also analysed so months ago (¿Tienen
futuro los servicios Cloud europeos?, ¿y los españoles? and in the post
titled ”Cloud Computing and the EU Digital Agenda: A step in the right
way“).
But the
above Roel’s simile, in my opinion, also reflects what is happening in the area
of Consulting companies when they analyze the Cloud market. To explain my
point, let me summarize some ideas that I’ve already showed in previous posts
analyzing the opinion of DC and Gartner, and contrasting them against the recent
ones of BSA:
1) On September, the
25th, the EU Commissioner for Digital Agenda (Ms. Neelie Kroes) said
“Today we launch a significant package of measures to build that trust and
boost our economic future. Today we make Europe not just cloud-friendly: but
cloud active. And we offer our economy a160 billion-euro boost”. And those words were based in IDC report that
analyses the business barriers for adopting the Cloud in Europe: These
barriers have not stopped public cloud adoption so far, but have limited the
number of cloud solutions adopted.
The IDC recommendations for
the most relevant policy actions (which should be included in the European Cloud
Computing Strategy to create a “cloud friendly and proactive environment” in the
EU and maximize the chances of achieving the benefits identified in the
“Policy-driven” scenario) were:
- Removing Regulatory Barriers
- Building Trust in the Market
- Protect Consumers’ Rights to Control Their Data and to Be Forgotten
- Promoting Standardisation and Interoperability
- Building the Business Case for Cloud Adoption
- Contributing to the Business Case for High-speed Broadband Infrastructures
2) Besides of the IDC report, I also
analyzed (just a couple of months before the IDC report) a Gartner report titled
“Europe
behind the US on cloud”, according to Gartner. It stated that “The
opportunities for cloud computing value are valid all over the world, and the
same is true for some of the risks and costs. 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”. And they present the 4 main problems to justify its
statement:
First, the Europe’s diverse
and ever-changing data privacy regulations inhibit the movement of personal data
to the cloud.
Second, the complexity of
business-to-business multi-enterprise integration and processes.
Third, EU policy-making
processes and practices can hinder business.
Fourth, the effect on
investment of the debt crisis in the eurozone.
3) And, finally, a few days ago I read
the Business Software Alliance (BSA) report about the best 24 countries
prepared for the Cloud; first of all, I must be honest and recognize
that BSA is not my favourite because of the way they use to get its goals, but
they have a lot of media and they use to do good market analysis (disregarding
the final goal of them):
Surprise!,
the top ten that have more robust policies for business in the cloud are Japan,
Australia, Germany, United States, France, Italy, UK, Korea, Spain, and
Singapore. (Note at the bottom of this post you’ll find the complete
ranking).
OK, as a Spanish technician,
I’m proud to be in the ninth place, if it would be correct). Moreover, as
European, I’m also happy when I see German in the 3rd place, and
France in the 5th, Italy in the 6th and United Kingdom in
the 7th (by thaw way, let me say it again, Spain in the
9th) … and according that study the US is behind Germany in the
4th place, and tightly, as aforesaid, followed by France, Italy and
UK. According to the BSA market analyses the main cuties of EU economy seam to
do, all together, the things better than others …so, what happens with the
Gartner’s Analyses?.
First of all (disregarding
the final goals of BSA, that I don’t want to analyze because probably I won’t be
fair) we should to quote its words and we can summarize them in that “the
countries were scored, taking into account their laws and regulations for
provision of cloud watching seven areas: data privacy, cyber security, cyber
crime control, preservation of intellectual property, technology
interoperability and legal harmonization, free trade, and infrastructure
IT”. Quoting again BSA, Japan, the first country in the raking, has
a comprehensive suite of modern laws that support and facilitate the digital
economy and cloud computing — from comprehensive privacy legislation that avoids
burdens on data transfers and data controllers to a full range of criminal and
IP law protections. Further, Japan is a leader in the Japan has a comprehensive
suite of modern laws that support and facilitate the digital economy and cloud
computing — from comprehensive privacy legislation that avoids burdens on data
transfers and data controllers to a full range of criminal and IP law
protections”.
Therefore, BSA proposes seven policies that Governments should
strengthen to expand economic opportunities in the cloud computing solutions,
and in fact its analysis is based in the following that “seven policy
categories that measure the countries’ preparedness to support the growth of
cloud computing”:
1 – Protecting the privacy of users by allowing
the free flow of information and commerce.
2 – Promote advanced cybersecurity practices
without requiring the use of specific technologies.
3 – Fighting cybercrime with clear measures and
actions against the perpetrators.
4 – Provide protection strengthened against the
misappropriation and breach of cloud technologies.
5 – Encourage openness and interoperability
between cloud providers.
6 – To promote free trade, reducing barriers and
eliminate preferences for certain products or companies.
7 – Provide incentives for private sector to
invest in broadband infrastructure and promote digital
inclusion.
Well, in you’ve compared what any report say, you probably understand my point: there’s cloud confusion even among the Consulting companies.
About that kind of governmental policies, let me
state my very particular opinion: disregarding what other important laws (as the
ones stated in the BSA report or in the European Digital Agenda recommendations)
and governmental policies (also analyzed by the great Consulting companies), the
US Government with its “First Cloud” policy and the UK Convergent with its “UK
Cloud Store” that pursue to foster the Cloud market in the US or UK
Administration organisms are quite incentive and will help to foster the private
Cloud market too. Of course the private initiative is important, but some kind
of public incentive will accelerate it specially in Europe (where public sector
influence in IT business is more important than in USA. ); indeed, the US
government is practising that policy, may be for different reasons, or for that
ones and others.
Let me finalize quoting the whole ranking and the
scores of 24 countries surveyed by BSA:
01 – Japan – 83.302 – Australia – 79 2
03 – Germany – 79.0
04 – United States – 78.6
05 – France – 78.4
06 – Italy – 76.6
07 – United Kingdom – 76.6
08 – Korea – 76.0
09 – Spain – 73.9
10 – Singapore – 72.2
11 – Poland – 70.7
12 – Canada – 70.4
13 – Malaysia – 59.2
14 – Mexico – 56.4
15 – Argentina – 55.0
16 – Russia-52.3
17 – Turkey – 52.1
18 – South Africa – 50.4
19 – India – 50.0
20 – Indonesia – 49.7
21 – China – 47.5
22 – Thailand – 42.6
23 – Vietnam – 39.5
24 – Brazil- 35.1
Here you can find the full BSA report
