Brussels, 19/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - The steering board for the new European Cloud Partnership (ECP) in support of cloud computing met in Brussels for the first time on 19 November in order to launch a process of collaboration between public authorities and industry. The ECP aims to help build the EU single digital market for cloud computing in conformity with the European cloud computing strategy launched by the European Commission on 27 September. The steering board, under the guidance of President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves, brings together chief executive officers and government representatives with responsibility for information technology (IT) procurement. The steering board will deliver strategic advice to European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes. “I need this top level input so that all of Europe can see the full benefits of cloud computing, and quickly. President Ilves and all board members are going to give no-nonsense, action-oriented advice to get the European Cloud Partnership moving”, Kroes said. Ilves underlined, for his part, the importance of adopting common rules at EU level on cloud computing so as to take advantage of this technology which is still little demanded at the European level but very widespread in the United States and China. “We all have to be 'cloud-active'. We have to set the rules ourselves, otherwise others will do it for us”, Ilves warned.
In tangible terms, the objective of the ECP is to exploit the purchasing power of the public sector (which allocates 20% of its revenue to IT spending) in order to shape the growing and maturing market for cloud computing services with online administration services that are ultimately less expensive and of better quality. Under the guidance of its steering board, the ECP will bring together public authorities and industry consortia to implement pre-commercial procurement actions for public sector cloud computing. The ECP will develop common cloud computing procurement requirements for use by member states and public authorities throughout the EU. On 19 November, the steering board discussed and defined its objectives for 2103-2014. Above all, the board will work to raise public awareness and develop practical solutions to facilitate the adoption of cloud computing in the public sector, whilst dispelling solutions which are not realistic. It also aims at making cloud readiness and adoption a political priority.
On 16 November Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), adopted his opinion on the Commission's strategy on cloud computing, tackling the data protection challenges of the cloud. “The complexity of cloud computing technology does not justify any lowering of data protection standards”, Hustinx said. While public authorities and consumers want to benefit from a reduction in IT services costs and access to better services when using cloud computing, their main concern is to know whether the system is trustworthy and if the data processing operations can be carried out in compliance with data protection rules. In Hustinx' view, determining the responsibility of the parties involved in cloud computing is therefore of the utmost importance - an issue that can be resolved by the implementation of standard commercial terms and conditions that respect data protection requirements for commercial contracts, public procurement and international data transfers. (IL/transl.fl)