The European economy consists primarily of small and medium enterprises. 99.9 percent of all European businesses have fewer than 250 employees, 92 percent have less than ten. This means that the affluence of our continent depends on relatively small businesses that together need to be able to provide sufficient value creation, tax revenues and jobs to sustain our European way of life.
Cloud services are part of a technological revolution that has already changed many aspects of our life and will continue to do so in the future: the ways in which we produce, distribute, own, and communicate. Complex and extensive IT services have become a key production resource for companies. Even more importantly, this relevant operative production resource is no longer available only to large enterprises with ample capital. Instead, the cloud allows all types of businesses, even small start-ups, to gain access to this production factor with practically unlimited availability quickly and easily. This changes competition fundamentally and allows even small and medium enterprises to become significant competitors in many sectors of the economy.
In short, the cloud provides European businesses with massive benefits in terms of growth and competition that are still frequently being underestimated or not recognized at all.
Dr. Tobias Höllwarth is President of EuroCloud Europe eurocloud.org, Director of the StarAudit Programme staraudit.org, and heads a European network of IT lawyers: cloudprivacycheck.eu/who/.
Photocredit: alphaspirit