Alternative EU cloud strategy suggested by EESC
Alternative EU cloud strategy suggested by EESC
According to the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the European Commission’s (EC) cloud computing strategy does not do enough to boost the development of cloud services.
The EESC – which is the EU's consultative body – have said that the policy also fails to support the emergence of the cloud computing infrastructure across Europe.
As a result of its findings, the EESC has suggested an alternative strategy, which includes expanding the use of cloud-based services. In order to do this, the EESC sees the development of cloud-based software and the education of people as regards cloud-related technology as crucial to building the service across Europe.
The EU's original cloud strategy was released in September of last year and pledged to 'improve and increase' the use of the cloud within the EU. It was also hoped that the policy would generate almost four million vacancies across the EU by 2020, as well as generating around €900 billion.
Eric Pigal, EESC member, said that the EU's cloud-based plans needed to 'go beyond' promoting the uptake of the technology. “They should help businesses and public administrations to become 'cloud active' by offering cloud-based services and make Europe 'cloud productive' by providing cloud infrastructure,” Computer Weekly reported Mr Pigal as saying.
Failing to ensure the development of European digital energy production will lead to a growing dependence across the EU on foreign providers. “Digital energy, like other energy sources such as oil or gas, is an economic and strategic challenge,” Mr Pigal went on to say.
The EESC has confirmed that it does support the EU's plans to do away with the high level of technical standards and roll out an EU-wide certification scheme to cover all cloud service providers.
Businesses looking to move services into the cloud, should evaluate the performance of their existing network and consider setting up a leased line or MPLS network.
