Cloud Adoption in Europe Will Slow Because of Euro Crisis, Other Issues

Sometimes end user demand and supplier readiness are not the primary near-term issues that can accelerate or delay adoption of new technologies.


European privacy rules, multi-country business processes, a deep euro crisis and a lingering recession will conspire to delay cloud computing adoption in Europe by at least two years when compared to the U.S., according to Gartner analysts. 


Gartner said that although interest in cloud is high in Europe, the diversity of Europe’s 44 different nations will result in slow cloud adoption in this region.


"The opportunities for cloud computing value are valid all over the world, and the same is true for some of the risks and costs," said Paolo Malinverno, vice president at Gartner. "However, some of cloud computing’s potential risks and costs — namely security, transparency and integration — which are generally applicable worldwide, take on a different meaning in Europe.”


The continuing economic crisis within the countries using the single European currency has deep IT implications, because increasing uncertainty about the euro is causing major investments to be put on hold. 


This is slowing down decision making and will dampen spending.