EU to spend €6.7 billion on its own Cloud

Serious concerns were raised last week after the EU Commission announced plans to create a new European Cloud at a staggering cost of  €6.7 billion. Initially, the EU Cloud is being aimed at EU scientists and researchers as a tool for sharing data and results, but by 2020, the project is intended to become a continental data storage and network infrastructure for the EU. Notwithstanding concerns over data security, and the fact that scientists are already perfectly capable of sharing data and results with colleagues from around the world, many believe that such projects are best left to private entrepreneurs and providers, who have already developed fully functioning and reliable Clouds, such as DropBox, Google Drive, iCloud etc.

Why the EU needs to spend such vast sums on yet another Cloud project, that may well be out of date by the time it arrives, is beyond comprehension, but this is becoming worryingly typical of an organisation so desperate to create vanity projects for propaganda purposes, that it loses sight of the true meaning of innovation and commercial enterprise.

Of course, if the EU’s management of its very own GPS project is anything to go by, no one will be surprised if the EU Cloud comes in over budget, late and surplus to needs. You can read more about the project at the following link: Science Business article on the EU Cloud