The Great Debate UK

The regulatory maze of a pan-European cloud

–Ian Winham is Chief Information Officer of Ricoh Europe. The opinions expressed are his own.–

Cloud computing is widely regarded by policymakers and business leaders to be one of the biggest keys for unlocking business growth in Europe today. So much so that the European Commission is currently formulating a cloud strategy to promote cloud use across the private and public sectors across all of Europe.

The reason behind this effort is clear. Policymakers and businesses alike are full of confidence in the cloud’s ability to drive growth for Europe and particularly for SMEs, deliver savings for governments and ultimately create a more efficient European economy. The numbers are just as promising. Cloud services can boost Europe’s five largest economies by €763 billion over the next five years and create 2.4 million jobs, according to research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Other business forecasts are even more optimistic.  IDC estimates the cloud could generate up to 14 million new jobs globally by 2015.

So it is a not matter of if Europe should adopt cloud storage, but rather when Europe will adopt cloud storage more broadly. The cloud will one day sit at the centre of the future workplace, with businesses becoming more flexible and mobile than ever before.

Travellers could feel long-lasting impact of volcano disruption

- Professor Robert Bor is a clinical psychologist with a special interest in aviation and  travel psychology. He has published several books on this topic. The opinions expressed are his own. -

The opening of UK airspace on Wednesday will clearly bring some relief to travellers stranded around the world. For others, their misery and feelings of fear and uncertainty will continue well after they have returned home, and that could be still a few weeks for now.