1. The European Cloud Computing Strategy
Francisco García Morán
DG for Informatics, European Commission
Cloud: an elastic execution
environment of resources
involving multiple stakeholders
and providing a metered service
at multiple granularities for a
specified level of quality (of
service).
Source: Expert group on Cloud Computing, 2009
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/ssai/docs/cloud-report-final.pdf
1

2. Definition
Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient,
on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources
(e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly
provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider
interaction
NIST definition of Cloud Computing http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/cloud-computing/cloud-def-v15.doc
“The Cloud” for the uninitiated …
+ =
- =
+ =
2

3. Cloud Computing - EU27
8 000
SaaS Total
7 000
6 000
5 000
M€ PaaS Total
4 000
3 000
2 000
IaaS Total
1 000
0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Sources: AMR, Gartner, IDC, William Blair & Co., Merrill Lynch, PAC
Europe […] should develop an
EU-wide strategy on 'cloud
computing' notably for
government and science.”
Digital Agenda for Europe
3

4. Challenges
Security,
Interoperability
dependability
Governance,
control
Privacy & Legal
Interoperability
Essential for the cloud to be fair,
open and competitive
Open specifications are key
Data portability
4

5. Cloud standardisation:
the issues
standardisation is highly complex
the supply side is not interested
too early: players prefer to gain market share
the demand side is hesitant
current solutions could result in lock in situations
large number of involved parties
technology providers, solution integrators, governments, user groups, etc.
regulatory requirements to comply with
several standardisation bodies and fora with heavy
non-European participation
there is a real need to develop
••• 9
Data protection
Key issue for Europe
Data may be hosted anywhere
Data is subject to location specific
legislative issues
5

6. Legal framework
Cloud providers should protect
European cloud customer’s data:
portability, transparency, EU data
protection standards
European governments must have
legal frameworks
Some Reports on Cloud Computing
An SME perspective
Information Assurance on Cloud Computing
Benefits, risks and Framework
recommendations for
Security & Resilience
Information Security
in Government Clouds
6

7. UE CIOs
21% of countries have Challenges
national strategies Security, data protection & privacy 79%
Public cloud vendors issues 57%
50% use it for public Change management 43%
services Political and legal issues 36%
43% have plans for Benefits
cloud use in public Efficiency 92,86%
services Agility 50%
Focus shift 35,71%
European Cloud Strategy
Legal
framework
Technical &
Market
commercial
7

8. Ongoing activities
Policy initiatives
The Digital Agenda for Europe forsees:
review of data protection framework;
reform of EU standardisation system;
better use of standards in public procurement;
network security;
etc.
Research Projects
EGI-InSPIRE: Create persistent eInfrastructure with clouds for science (EUR
25m)
Eurocloud: Develop "servers on a chip" based on ARM processors (EUR 3.3m)
StratusLab: Develop an open source cloud distribution (EUR 2.3m)
SIENA: Co-ordinate adoption and evolution of interoperable distributed
computing infrastructures with open standards for clouds and grids (EUR 0.41m)
etc.
Future Research and
Pilots in Cloud Computing
FP7 ICT Work programme 2011-12
For example, on:
Intelligent, automatic management of cloud resources to ensure scalability
Interoperability among different clouds, portability, protection of data in cloud environments, control of data distribution and
latency.
Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP)
(Orientations for Work programme 2011 under discussion)
“Support several pilots to prepare move towards clouds of/for public services. Pilots to demonstrate potential benefits of adopting new
service delivery architectures to reduce cost and enable private actors to build new services.”
8

9. Addressing future challenges
Obj. 1.2, ICT WP 2011-2012
Advanced
Cloud computing Internet of software
services engineering
Management of
cloud resources
Advanced engineering
Cloud Service engineering for software
Interoperability Services enabled by Quality measure and
integration of real and assurance techniques
Support of mobile, virtual worlds
context-aware Management of non-
Scalability, self- functional requirements
applications management, fault
localisation, … Tools and methods for
Integration of community-based
computing and Life cycle software development
networking management tools
and methods
environments
Standardization and collaboration
Support
Open source development model
actions Cooperation with Japan on cloud computing
Research Projects
Existing Projects Total Funding
Projects listed
Funding: 36,23 M€
88.48 M€
Projects Starting
Funding: 52,25 M€
9

10. Take aways
Cloud Computing is changing the ICT
market
Europe needs to become "Cloud-Friendly"
and "Cloud-Active”
International policies needed
European Commission is working on the
regulatory framework to stimulate and
support Cloud Computing
10