I don't typically write about political topics here (perhaps curious since I studied political science in college) but I wanted to address the current political climate in Europe as it relates to policies that may impact managed services and cloud in that region.
There can be no denying the fact that Europe is in the midst of an economic crisis that is risking even the healthy European Union members. While negotiations have been happening for some time, it appears that there is no realistic end to the crisis in the near future. Which brings me to technology.
It is important that Europeans not allow the financial crisis to derail efforts to bring about beneficial IT policies that could help millions of end users and thousands of businesses. Europe needs managed services and cloud. Europe has been a fragmented region for obvious historical reasons. But, the economic problems it faces today cannot stand in the way of perhaps one of the only business models that can help businesses and individuals alike.
North America has had its share of economic struggles in the last decade. However, managed services has emerged as not only a practical IT management model, it has also created countless jobs, inspired technical and business innovation, and continues to safeguard data and other IT assets that are most precious to our businesses and national infrastructure. This should be the example for Europe. To embrace managed services as a model for dealing with what otherwise would be an impossible task.
In fact, the same environment that caused North America to see a boom in managed services over a decade ago, exists today in Europe. Each EU member nation has unique and compelling reasons to embrace "nationalistic" managed services policies that will help ensure their country's IT assets are safeguarded. Even as we speak, managed services and cloud computing leaders are meeting to decide how these policies will be implemented. We may begin to see the fruits of their labor within the year.
I am hopeful the USA and Europe both will find a way out of this economic mess. Maybe, just maybe, it is possible that managed services is the ignition that will start that renaissance.
