A new report has cast doubt on European Union (EU) insistence that cloud service providers have their head offices and global headquarters registered in the EU and that they store and process data in one of its 27 member states.
The European Union’s Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) Cloud Services (EUCS) system would theoretically eliminate the operations of many popular global companies in the EU, including Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
In addition to the informal concern, the European Center for International Political Economy (ECIPE) released a report detailing growing concerns about the suggested move.
US cloud providers in the EU
ECIPE Director Matthias Bauer said Reuters (opens in a new tab)“I think the political intention is to eliminate foreign suppliers, but of course it will also have consequences for EU companies that rely more or less on cloud computing services.”
Several studies, including many focused on EMEA and the EU, have shown growing interest in the cloud from companies, with many organizations pledged to spend more as cloud coverage expands in the coming years.
Bauer told Reuters the move was politically motivated and that member states should speak out and call on the European Commission to abandon the plans.
So far, none of the U.S.-based companies listed above have commented publicly on the matter, but any advancement in the suggested move will undoubtedly cause a stir among cloud computing companies, and the impact will be much broader.
Currently, Amazon Web Services accounts for about a third of the cloud market, with Microsoft and Google second and third respectively.
This is not the first technological conflict between the EU and the US, and EU lawmakers have recently advised against signing a data transfer pact with the US amid concerns that US laws do not match EU rules such as the GDPR.