Leaseweb Global announced its full support for the European Industrial Technology Roadmap for Next-Generation Cloud-Edge Offering, details of which have been released in the European Commission's industrial strategy announcement. The Roadmap outlines a clear path to market innovation and global leadership in cloud and edge computing, and will be used by the European Commission to help establish funding priorities that accelerate the development of the EU cloud market. The Roadmap's creation will ensure the EU builds the next generation of European cloud and edge offerings, expanding Europe on the global stage as it builds for the long term, and creates a world-leading cloud ecosystem.

As co-author of the major strategy report, Leaseweb has worked closely with other European industry leading organizations to identify investment priorities and recommendations. Leaseweb's endorsement is representative of its continued commitment to furthering the European cloud ecosystem and accelerating its competitiveness, innovation and security on a global scale.

The Roadmap--co-authored by 27 leading organisations across the European cloud industry and recently presented to EU commissioner Thierry Breton--details strategic investment priorities and recommendations to expedite the development and adoption of competitive, secure, trusted, and climate-neutral cloud and edge services across the EU. 

The Roadmap highlights three primary investment pillars:

• Leadership in domains that will shape and showcase European cloud and edge offerings on the global market
• Renewing and expanding infrastructure foundations across Europe
• Enabling sovereign and sector-specific services to end-users
  

Europe is already a major consumer of cloud computing technologies. Currently, 36% of companies across the continent use cloud services, yielding EU ~54 billion of direct cloud spending in the last year alone. Moreover, this figure is expected to double by 2023. This presents a massive opportunity for European cloud players to innovate in spaces already proven to be top priorities for the EU from compliance, security, privacy, an increased focus on open European collaboration and transparency, to the removal of cloud lock-in limitations and, of course, energy and resource efficiency--a priority recently highlighted in the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact.

Collectively, the bloc has set an ambitious goal of a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2034 and achieving climate neutrality. To reach this goal, the market will increasingly pursue energy efficient cloud infrastructure and services. Cloud and edge computing--the backbone of the current and future digital economy--can play an important role in achieving this worthy yet ambitious goal. 

Born in pursuit of greater efficiency and optimal use of over-capacity, cloud computing can play a leading role in fighting climate change by integrating environmental considerations into its equation. Deployments "at the edge" can contribute to reducing data traffic and resulting carbon footprint.  

Speaking about the report and announcement of the roadmap, Con Zwinkels, CEO at Leaseweb said: "We are proud to have participated in the development of the roadmap at a very important stage in the history of the cloud industry in Europe. This joint industry and Commission initiative to create policies and investment priorities helps ensure that Europe builds technology competitiveness for the long term. Implementing our report recommendations will ensure the continent develops a world-leading cloud and edge ecosystem. Leaseweb is proud to have been a part of the drafting process and looks forward to continued collaboration and innovation."