Cloud Adoption –opportunities and challengesElena Zvarici, President, EuroCloud Romania

26.03.2014

About EuroCloud

EuroCloud Europe is an European federation of associations and

organizations dedicated to the adoption of the cloud model, acting as

accelerators for business, technological relationships and application

integration.

EuroCloud is an independent non-profit organization and consists of a

two-tier setup where every European country can apply to participate in as

long as they respect the EuroCloud Statutes. In less than three years, 30

countries have a EuroCloud presence and in 21 European countries a

local Eurocloud association is formally established.

Right now the established countries are: Portugal, Spain, France, UK,

Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden,

Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Italy, Ireland, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Poland,

Romania, Serbia and Hungary. The board directors of these countries are

also member of the EuroCloud Europe council and have a vote on

decisions to be made.Page 2

About EuroCloud Romania

EuroCloud Romania acts as a collective voice of the Romanian cloud

industry in order to allow for the development of a local cloud ecosystem

and to raise visibility on the Romanian cloud computing market on

European and international level.

Active member of the EuroCloud community, EuroCloud Romania is

working for the development of the Romanian cloud industry, providing

awareness and education to providers and users of cloud services and

providing insight into the legal and business framework related to the

development of cloud services.

EuroCloud Romania is a member of the Administrative Council

of EuroCloud Europe.

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What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing represents a paradigm shift from centralised systems: it

is moving data, tools and processes online and delivering them as a

service.

Cloud-based services include:

- the delivery of software (Software as a Service),

- the delivery of a computing platform, including the operating system (Platform as a

Service),

- the delivery of virtual machines (Infrastructure as a Service),

…based on user demand

Added value for users

- Substantial reduction in fixed and sunk costs on IT infrastructure

- Elasticity in IT provisioning – the user only pays for the actual usage

- Up-to-date software

- High reliability of cloud infrastructure

- Ubiquitous access to resources 24/7Page 4

Cloud adoption in Europe : opportunities / 1

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Cloud adoption in Europe : opportunities / 2

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Cloud adoption in Europe : opportunities / 3

The cloud is recognised as an important enabler for productivity and

better services; easier access to data and simplified sharing

The European Council in October 2013 asked the Commission "to make

every effort to put Europe at the forefront of cloud adoption”

Nov 2012, The European Commission has launched the European

Cloud Strategy and works towards promoting the creation of new

European innovative cloud services, the adoption of cloud services

throughout businesses and public sector customers.

The Cloud for Europe project: uses pre-commercial procurement as an

instrument for public sector innovation. The pre-commercial procurement

identifies innovative solutions for cloud services that best fit public sector

needs, but also provides better information to public procurers about the

potential of cloud services.

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Cloud adoption in Europe : challenges / 1

Lack of awareness of cloud benefits for private and public sector

Lack of awareness of legal requirements related to data protection and

legislation

Transition of acquisition practices: transfer of CAPEX expenditures to

OPEX

Current procedures and regulations not conceived with innovative IT

solutions in mind

Financing of cloud implementations: restrictive structural funds

eligibility criteria

Quality or lack of fast broadband network in some European countries

and areas

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Cloud adoption in Europe : challenges / 2

A wave of European protectionism is entering European politics and

administration, following the 2013 Snowden revelations

New data protection regulation: to be finalized and adopted by the

members states in 2014, but slow process

Financing cloud innovation through structural funds : ongoing pilots

(ICT Innovation grants), negotiations taking place between Bruxelles

and members countries

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We would be happy to help.

elena.zvarici@eurocloud.rohttp://www.eurocloud.ro

Do You Have

Any Questions?

Thank you !