The European cloud service market is growing rapidly, reaching nearly €190B in 2022. It's a key enabler in the majority of the 14 strategic industrial ecosystems defined in the 2021 EU industrial strategy and is further forecasted to grow at an annual rate of 13% over the next decade.
Despite this compelling growth, and with strong domestic players, the European ecosystem is still limited in its ability to expand.
The obstacles to open the cloud ecosystem
Today, 90% of the European cloud services market is an oligopoly: the dominant position of a few market players is hindering the development of the European cloud market.
This oligopolistic situation derives from three complementary phenomenons:
- Consumer lock-in: By design, cloud service customers cannot easily change cloud providers or combine services from multiple providers. Rather than creating a universal cloud service approach for themselves, European developers are forced to tailor their cloud strategy to one chosen provider.
- Vendor lock-out: Once customers are locked in with one cloud service provider, this is hard for another provider to extend their services to the same user. Customers can hardly consider alternative cloud options, which locks other vendors out of the competition.
- Unfair competition: The current market is unfair for users, developers, and smaller cloud service providers. Only the largest suppliers can leverage their dominant market position to control competition in a way that prevents the industry from innovating and growing.
This situation is a direct threat to the digital sovereignty of the EU. But there’s a solution — we can unlock the cloud in Europe.
Together towards new markets: UNLOCK the Cloud
Europe can and must solve its cloud service oligopoly by building a legal and technical framework that enables full cloud interoperability: the freedom to exchange information without artificial borders.
The Open Services Cloud initiative implements the cloud interoperability and data portability provisions of the European Data Act and Digital Markets Act. Our Open Services Cloud initiative proposes an open-source framework that aims at removing the current locks in cloud computing through a comprehensive technical strategy.
Stay tuned for our next articles to learn about the Open Services Cloud solution and its benefits for European markets in detail.
You want to contribute to the digital sovereignty of the EU and support the emergence of new markets? Join the Open Services Cloud event on Tuesday, April 25, to make cloud computing better for all — for customers, service providers, and everyday users alike.
It’s time to UNLOCK the Cloud.
