Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe-Accompanying Staff Working Document

Citation
European Commission, Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe-Accompanying Staff Working Document (SWD(2012) 271 final) (Sept. 27, 2012) (full-text).

Overview
This Staff Working Paper provides supporting analysis to the political proposals in Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe. The document is presented in six sections.


 * The first section considers of key definitions of cloud computing and discusses why it is of major policy interest.
 * The second section looks at the energy and environmental impacts of cloud computing.
 * The third section provides an analysis of the emerging demand for cloud computing in terms of its potential growth as a sub sector of the ICT industry but also the factors conditioning its take up and use in the key demand areas of large and small enterprises, the public sector and consumers. The section draws heavily upon the results of a survey commissioned by the European Commission to investigate factors of demand.
 * The fourth section reports on the key results of the consultation that has been carried out to investigate users viewpoints.
 * The fifth section looks in more detail at the various areas of Digital Agenda Europe (in particular the chapter on the Digital Single Market) and its relation with cloud computing services.
 * The sixth section presents specific key actions on cloud computing.