U.K. is “Way Behind” the U.S. in Incorporating Public Cloud Services

By Neil Zawacki
Updated: September 14, 2011

Mark Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce.com, recently declared that the U.K. government is “way behind” the United States in the incorporation of public cloud services. He also stated that the U.K. government was focusing too much on creating its own Internet-based computing and storage services.

This is not the first time that Mark Benioff has commented on the necessity for governments to utilize public cloud services. He sent a detailed report to the Obama administration this last July that advised it to increase the governmental uptake of cloud computing. The report also indicated that the worldwide market for these services may grow to $148.8 billion in the next three years.

Salesforce.com plans to build its first data center in the United Kingdom at some point during the next year. These additional local bases for data storage should help to assuage security concerns that have been brought up recently.

Neelie Kroes, the Digital Agenda Commissioner for the European Union, has also spoken about the value of cloud-based computing. She indicated that the EU should develop the legal framework needed to encourage technology research and do what it can to move the public sector towards the cloud. She also has requested that cloud computing providers take part in talks related to data protection and privacy.

Featured Research
Related Articles