Little is yet known about Europe’s new strategy, beyond that it covers three broad areas: the legal framework (such as data protection and privacy); the technical and commercial fundamentals (involving EU support for critical areas such as security and availability); and the market (using the EU’s public sector purchasing power to get the cloud market moving).
Every time that Commissioner Kroes discusses the subject, commentators dissect her words looking for further clues on the strategy. And usually, as in this case, they are disappointed. This interview was granted clearly to maintain interest rather than provide answers. On security she said, simply, the cloud is safe. “Everybody has a cloud locker,” Kroes said, “and you have the key of your locker, so it is safe, it is protected, and you can just put in that locker whatever you want.”
In the whole interview, she gives away only one other thing. “So, again,” she says, “not pleading for a European cloud – that would be old-fashioned...”
It would be very easy to dismiss this interview. It is billed as ‘Commissioner Kroes on the EU strategy for cloud computing’; but she says nothing about that strategy. She gives away just two things: she says the cloud is secure (without saying how the ‘locker’ should be implemented, nor how nor by what sort of key it should be locked); and she confirms that she is not looking for a walled European cloud.
The rest, as they say, will be announced in due course.