Kroes Promises EU Cloud Strategy – Based On Angry Birds?

New European laws will make cloud computing more attractive and speed up the process of bringing people, businesses and governments online, says European digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes.

The main issue facing cloud computing in Europe is the variety of rules and regulations across the 27 member states, said Kroes, pleding to create a common strategy to present to the public this summer.

United we stand

Kroes cited the success of wildly popular smartphone game Angry Birds as an example of how revenues can be derived from the cloud, but dug deeper into the areas the strategy must cover.

The plans will include legislation on collective rights management licensing and multi-sector licensing, which could radically change the way royalties are sold. The new legislation is likely to apply to all European states, and make the exchange of digital content simple and more efficient.

The plans have been welcomed by the IT industry, in the form of comments from enterprise systems vendor HP.

“HP thoroughly welcomes the EU initiative proposing to align cloud regulations across the region and believes that technology is ready for a secure usage of the cloud,” said Ian Brooks, European head of innovation and sustainable computing. “Cloud is not a fashion, but a fundamental shift in our industry driven by a changing workforce, new technologies and the evolution of business models.”

In a survey of IT decision-makers commissioned by HP, nearly half of respondents saw the cloud as driving innovation, rather than just a cost cutting initiative. And it looks like if businesses will not move to the cloud, consumers definitely will.