Establishing a trusted cloud Europe : a policy vision document by the Steering Board of the European Cloud Partnership : final report

The European Union, like most of the world, faces economically challenging times. In such times, it becomes all the more important to recognise and seize new and unique opportunities to drive growth, stimulate innovation, and to provide benefits to citizens, businesses and public administrations. One of these opportunities is cloud computing. Its direct economic value to the European Union is already substantial, but the impact on innovation and social developments is even bigger, as it enables a transformation to a more connected and more efficient on-line society. The European Cloud Computing Strategy aims to ensure that this potential is captured in Europe. Gaining and maintaining a leadership position in this market requires quick, coordinated and effective action, so that trust in the cloud would increase. This document represents an important step in the execution of the Cloud Computing Strategy. It is the result of a collaborative process in which participants of public administrations, cloud businesses, and data protection advocates have joined forces through the European Cloud Partnership, and have worked together to establish a roadmap for European leadership in the cloud.