EC Says Cloud Will Evaporate Without Open Standards

The European Commission has continued its push against proprietary software and standards by pointing out the key role that openess played in the development of cloud computing services.

In a wide-ranging speech this week in London, Joaquín Almunia, vice president of the European Commission responsible for competition policy discussed how member states need to compete more aggressively in the digital arena with the US and Asia. In particular he said that open standards and approaches were key to development of new services and platforms.

Cost Of Innovation

“It is a combination of competitive markets in infrastructure and open standards that fostered the development of cloud services,” he said. “And the internet would not be the success it is today, had it not been built on open, interoperable standards and protocols.”

Fostering openess and preventing closed markets and unfair competition is key to the development of innovative digital media and technology in the region, added Almunia. “Open and interoperable environments drive down the cost of innovation. The lower the costs of entry, the lower the risk to innovators, and the more innovators you get,” he said.

In June, the European Commission called on governments to embrace open standards, after criticising the waste and lock-in associated with some proprietary technologies. The costs associated with some proprietary software were no longer sustainable, given the ongoing financial crisis, the EC said.

Competition commissioner Almunia also made reference to the issue of net neutrality which is currently being reviewed by European authorities. “The potential for broadband traffic management by telecom operators in order to differentiate services by level of quality are now hotly debated. My colleague Neelie Kroes has just launched a public debate on this issue. But whether or not the Commission ultimately decides that further legislation is warranted, traffic management cannot result in instances of market foreclosure,” he said.

The European Commission is due to publish a consultation document about net neutrality this summer. As well as the US, other countries including France, The Netherlands Norway, Sweden and Canada, are in the process of addressing the issue.

Net Neutrality

In late June, the UK’s communications regulator Ofcom published a discussion paper on net neutrality. Ofcom is asking the industry if it should flex its regulatory muscle to force internet service providers (ISPs) to treat all traffic equally.

Almunia also continued the EC’s ongoing criticism of the barriers that prevent Europe from operating a single digital market.  “The market for online content in Europe is a shameful anachronism, and the distribution of content online across the entire European Union is expensive and difficult,” he said. “This market fragmentation deprives us of scale and the lack of scale deprives us of business.”

The competition commissioner said that single licenses for digital content are needed across Europe to make it easier for content creators to develop media.

“It is an established fact that Europe is good at networks and we have strong companies in that sector. But time after time we have failed to fill the pipes. Billions of euros were spent on the 3G licences but 3G didn’t really happen until a new generation of user interface and applications came from the US,” he said. “The biggest web services were all developed overseas. We cannot afford to continue to miss the boat on so many different parts of the digital value chain.”