{"id":60889,"date":"2012-09-27T16:06:04","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T14:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=60889"},"modified":"2012-09-27T16:16:17","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T14:16:17","slug":"eu-readies-for-cloud-computing-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/60889-eu-readies-for-cloud-computing-future.html","title":{"rendered":"EU readies for cloud computing future"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the cloud computing business still in its relatively early days, the European Union<\/a> moved Thursday to secure a toehold in a potentially lucrative market it says could deliver 2.5 million new jobs.<\/p>\n

“We want to make Europe not just cloud-friendly but cloud-active,” said the EU’s commissioner for digital affairs Neelie Kroes<\/a>, announcing plans to develop European standards and certifications to get business to join the cloud.<\/p>\n

“Cloud computing” consists of storing data and software on remote servers accessed over the Internet by e-mail, social network or video-game users without having to invest in added software.<\/p>\n

Using remote servers in centres that can be the size of football fields is popular with services such as Facebook<\/a> and Spotify<\/a> but as an economy of scale, the system cuts IT costs for businesses by 10 to 20 percent.<\/p>\n

Kroes estimated a speed-up in the use of cloud computing both in the private sector and by public services could add 160 billion euros ($206 billion) to the EU economy — or around 1.0 percent — by 2020.<\/p>\n

“But this can only happen if we get the policies right,” she said. “Today many potential users think it is too complicated, too risky or too untrustworthy.”<\/p>\n

The EU needed to set standards by 2013, approve EU-wide certification schemes and help develop contracts to reassure users, she said.<\/p>\n

Europe must reconquer its lost technological edge, Kroes said. “We were in the driver’s seat in the 1990s. We should come back.”<\/p>\n

With cloud-computing currently one of the fastest growing sources of carbon emission as centres leave servers running 24\/7, the EU also is funding a scheme to “green” the cloud through the use of new, more efficient technology.<\/p>\n

The Eurocloud project aims to reduce power needs by 90 percent in conventional data centres by adapting low-power microprocessor technologies commonly used in mobile phones.<\/p>\n

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The Eurocloud project aims to instill cloud computing as a viable storage option for all businesses and reduce power needs by 90 percent <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":32740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[36,727,15811],"class_list":["post-60889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-active","tag-cloud-computing","tag-eurocloud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60889"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60891,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60889\/revisions\/60891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}