V3 Cloud Summit: US Patriot Act poses major obstacle to European cloud adoption

Many European businesses are prevented from adopting external cloud services because of the US Patriot Act, according to CA Technologies Cloud Solutions president Chris Rae.

Common obstacles to cloud computing adoption include security and availability of service, but he argued that regulatory problems are also a major barrier.

The Patriot Act came in response to the 9/11 attacks in the US, and can force US cloud providers to share data with US authorities, overriding European data protection regulations.

Concerns have been raised recently in the European Parliament about the negative impact of the Patriot Act on cloud adoption, and the Netherlands even considered preventing US cloud providers working on government contracts.

"Security is clearly not the only inhibitor to cloud adoption," said Rae. "The issues between the Data Protection Act and the Patriot Act need to be overcome."

However, Rae is confident that the US will modify the Patriot Act to prevent the country suffering financially.

"The Federal government is already in talks with the European Commission because people are turning their backs on US-based clouds and the US is losing money, so the legislation will be fixed for the sake of the global economy," he said.

However, Rae suggested that the 9/11 attacks may have to "fade a bit" before the Act is changed.

Even if Europe developed its own industry-leading cloud service providers, similar to those of Amazon, Google and Salesforce, it may not be enough to lure businesses to the cloud, because there is always the possibility that European cloud providers will be acquired, he added.

Long-standing UK cloud provider Savvis, foe example, was recently acquired by US telecoms firm CenturyLink.

The V3 Virtual Cloud Summit is taking place all day on Tuesday 27 September, so if you haven't already, register here to attend the other sessions.