In our recent E.U. thought leadership briefing that explored global document delivery for corporate libraries and information centers, we noted some concerns with regard to the pace of cloud computing adoption rates in the E.U. Specifically, we reported that according to a report by the highly respected research firm Gartner, European businesses will likely take approximately two years longer to fully adopt cloud computing than U.S. firms. Compliance requirements are slowing cloud adoption due to varying legal interpretations across 44 countries. Various and sundry legal issues create additional complexity for global organisations doing business in multiple countries.

However, this September 2012 news item written by Benjamin Fox of the E.U. Observer shows a renewed commitment and interest in making cloud computing more mainstream in the E.U. “In January, Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes launched a European Cloud Partnership to bring together cloud projects already launched by member states and develop a common cloud procurement strategy. The E.U. also launched its first cloud software in June with its Optimis project backed by €10.5m from the E.U. budget.

According to the E.U. executive a public sector cloud could generate an additional €250bn by 2020 and an extra 2.5 million jobs.

Meanwhile, late last year a paper by the International Data Corporation estimated that total revenue from public IT cloud services exceeded €17bn ($21.5 billion) in 2010 and will reach €58bn ($72.9 billion) in 2015.

The Commission regards cloud computing as a key element of its plans to establish a digital single market and acknowledged that the first step would be to task telecommunications experts to lay out E.U.-wide standards on security and data portability, as well as protecting personal information.

The IT industry is concerned that delay at European level could see them fall behind U.S. rivals, a fear borne out by a report published in June by U.S. technology research firm Gartner claiming that E.U. cloud computing would lag two years behind the U.S. due to European privacy rules and the effects of the eurozone crisis.

The full news story can be accessed here.