European cloud innovation faltering against North America and Asia

Europe is losing the cloud computing innovation race to North America and Asia, according to a new survey from Informa Telecoms & Media and the Cloud World Forum, taking place on 26-27 June in London. The survey also found that the use of cloud computing is viewed as a key driver of economic competitiveness.

Only 8% of cloud-computing stakeholders believe European countries lead in market development and innovation. But 70% cite North America and 15% Asia as leading regions. The UK is viewed as the most innovative European economy, while Japan and Singapore are highlighted in Asia.
“Europe produces many cloud innovators, but they often leave to get funding – usually to the United States which has an excellent start-up culture,” said Camille Mendler, principal analyst at Informa.

“Countries willing to take an investment risk in cloud computing are the most likely to reap its rewards.”

Eight out of 10 survey respondents say governments must provide incentives for businesses to use cloud services – a role for government as important as policing data security in the cloud. But the most active government programs are in Asia, where countries like Singapore subsidize and educate small enterprises to use cloud services.

“Small enterprises are the growth engine of economies worldwide, in terms of job creation,” said Mendler. “There’s growing recognition that a country’s economic competitiveness is closely tied to how these enterprises use cloud services.”

The Informa Cloud World Forum Global Insights Survey is an ongoing review of the marketplace, conducted among cloud computing stakeholders across the globe including enterprises, cloud service providers, telecom operators, infrastructure providers and policy makers.