The cloud is a key enabler for businesses in their quest for digital transformation and enhance user applications and experiences. According to a recent study conducted by Forrester, the cloud market will reach $411 billion in 2022 up 150% on 2020. For now, the cloud is dominated by American players who alone account for more than half of the world market.
With U.S regulations that are largely unfavorable to European businesses and GDPR now firmly established in everyone’s mindset plus Europe’s fear of losing its economic and market impact, there is impetus and opportunities for sovereign and European solutions.
Some players have successfully joined the market to compete with hyperscalers and build alternative, sovereign offerings. What are the real stakes behind choosing a European cloud provider?
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THE RISE OF EUROPEAN PLAYERS IN THE CLOUD COMPUTING MARKET
According to a study conducted by KPMG, the European cloud computing market grew by 27% between 2017 and 2019. In 2021, the market is worth 63 billion euros and is expected to reach 560 billion euros by 2030!
There are many reasons to explain the arrival of new players on the market. First, Europe is committed to playing catch up and taking full advantage of the opportunities offered by the cloud. The cloud has become a major challenge for the European economy; the sector will create thousands of jobs and enable renewed competitiveness and a degree of uniformity in EU countries.
The emergence of these new players will enable the EU to break free from the domination of American cloud providers and their stronghold on personal data. For now, 70% of the cloud computing market is dominated by these providers.
The regulations require every organization to protect personal data, in accordance with European legislation. When hosted on non-EU servers, data is no longer under European law and open to misuse and appropriation.
Sovereignty and data protection are fast becoming significant challenges for EU companies and citizens alike.
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THE ISSUE OF SOVEReiGNTY, a strategic challenge
Since 2016, a series of data regulations have been implemented in the US and the EU (GDPR, Privacy Shield, Cloud Act...) to define a strict legal framework concerning data flows. But, in 2020, The European Union Court of Justice invalidated the Privacy Shield, highlighting the contradiction of American regulations with the level of protection required under EU law.
Accordingly, companies transferring European citizens' personal data outside the European Union remain in legal limbo. They are also open to industrial risks because non-EU cloud providers can grant their government access to confidential data and intellectual property. This situation raises concerns and involves significant financial and operational risks.
To prevent such risks and ensure adequate compliance, choosing a European solution has becoming a genuine and pressing issue. Due to the growing consumer expectations, it is now also an important commercial challenge.
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CHOOSING A SOVEREIGN SOLUTION FOR OPTIMAL DATA PROTECTION
Some European players offer sovereign cloud solutions as competitive as those proposed by GAFAM which provide elevated levels of quality, security, transparency, and proximity, with an improved price/performance ratio.
More businesses want to entrust their strategic data to European players, able to offer a maximal protection to data and guarantee compliance with GDPR.
The issue of sovereignty has become so important that the EU has redoubled its efforts to take back control of personal data, as the Gaia-X project to build a European and sovereign cloud is proving.
Choosing a sovereign solution means finding a provider who can guarantee maximum transparency in data storage, in direct opposition to the American domination of our most precious assets.
By choosing Atempo's solutions, you choose sovereignty, security and optimal data protection.
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