Sovereignty is pushing the cloud market in Europe to new levels
When COVID-19 hit Europe, we saw European companies significantly accelerating their cloud uptake. Today, Accenture research shows that nearly all European companies use some form of cloud services. Despite these positive signs, many risk falling behind in extracting the full value of the cloud.
?I recently took part in a fascinating panel discussion around this topic at the European Data Economy Conference. Joining me to discuss the status of the cloud market in Europe and the regulatory framework currently being laid down by the European Union (including the proposed Data Act), were Pierre Chastanet , Head of Cloud & Software Unit, Directorate-General for Communications Networks (CONNECT)?at the European Commission, Jeremy Rollison , Senior Director, EU Government Affairs at Microsoft, Martine Gouriet , Director of Digital Uses at EDF Group, and David Vannozzi , CEO of CINECA.
Why are some European organizations failing to extract the full value of cloud?
While evidence shows that a stronger control of data value chains will improve the lives of people and the economy in Europe, organizations in regulated industries are falling behind this target because they need to balance it with the constraints imposed by European regulations on data sovereignty. The panel agreed that in some ways, regulated organizations are being asked to leapfrog across the three cloud maturity horizons but apparently with a lower level of freedom than non-regulated companies. In Europe, sovereignty has become a new and powerful criterion.
?What’s being done to address this?
Although sovereignty is increasing the complexity of options organizations need to evaluate, it is also pushing the cloud ecosystem to offer new and more advanced solutions to their clients. Just think about the number of new solutions designed and announced in the space of a few months by major technology providers to cope with more granular regulations on transparency, residency, data access and protection or operational resiliency. Or the multiple community initiatives on federating infrastructure and data interoperability. This is bringing the Cloud Continuum vision to life, spanning IoT wearable devices, to Edge, to central data centers with High Performance Computing solutions to large-scale clouds.
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Multi-cloud solutions are also essential. Accenture’s clients appreciate multi-cloud solutions because they allow them to better leverage cloud technologies to strengthen the resilience of infrastructure and reduce the lock-in effect. I welcomed the support of a multi-cloud approach by Pierre Chastanet, who underlined that the importance of being able to switch between cloud providers has led the European Commission to introduce switching requirements in the proposed Data Act.
?How do we see the way forward?
Accenture is committed to supporting the development of the Sovereign Cloud market in Europe. We are grouping together consulting, cloud, cybersecurity and data skills and acting as the transmission gear between supply and demand: providers and users, regulations and technologies. Our Sovereign Cloud Practice already has three active competence centers in Germany, Italy, and France - with Norway and Spain soon to be announced - where we meet organizations, clients, and partners, to explore the opportunities and co-design the way forward.
There are still many gaps to fill in realizing the right technology solutions to match and constantly adapt to the evolving regulatory mandates, but at the same time we think that Accenture understanding of the bits and bytes of cloud and data technologies may serve the open discussion with regulating authorities. And above all, clients, organizations, administrations need to be supported in making the right and sustainable choices to really deliver value with cloud.