SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Expo Europe 2009, held in Prague, Czech Republic, finished on May 19th, since when many blogs and articles have been appearing analyzing the many sessions and discussions that featured at the event.

A very interesting angle was raised in a post-conference blog by Dr Guy Bunker, Symantec's Chief Scientist, and that is the whole question of whether the absence of ‘true’ European cloud providers is acting as a brake on the adoption of the cloud in Europe.



Here's what Bunker (pictured above on the keynote stage, seated to the far right) wrote:

"It’s an interesting question and one I had never thought about. Having worked for American companies for nearly two decades, I have never been concerned by the control they may have.

It is true that various EU countries have very strict privacy laws and so they may be restricted from using global public clouds - but for the rest… this is something that needs to be looked at further. The cloud is going to offer competitive advantage to those that use it effectively - the EU mustn’t be left behind."

Bunker's overall conclusion about the Prague conference was that "there were a lot of great sessions - along with some very interesting new perspectives."