The Italian data market is growing, but it is essential to maintain an open and non-protectionist approach, as France has tried to do and failed, to maximize the country's competitiveness and innovation. This conclusion was reached by the study by the Institute for Competitiveness (I-Com) in collaboration with Open Gate Italia entitled "A cloud strategy for a more competitive and secure Italy". The analysis provides several interesting data, according to which a full and conscious adoption of cloud computing by Italian companies would potentially increase their turnover by 600 billion euros, more than half of which would benefit small and medium-sized enterprises. Not only that: according to I-Com, data management systems could generate in the public sector of the country an impact of up to over 1 billion in savings a year, thanks to lower energy costs and higher productivity of personnel, with all that this entails in terms of optimizing public resources.
Currently, however, only 30% of the analyzed sample of companies adopts this type of technology, in particular the public cloud, with a higher incidence in the revenue classes above 10 million euro. "If used widely throughout the territory, it could represent a real enabling factor of the digital transformation not only of the entire Italian production system, but also of the public administration", explains I-Com in the press release. The study – edited by president of the think tank Stefano da Empoli and senior research fellow Lorenzo Principali – was presented during a webinar organized in collaboration with Open Gate Italia, which was attended by experts and representatives of institutions, politics and the manufacturing world.
The I-Com report underlines how, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, cloud computing has assumed a particular strategic value both for its widespread use by businesses, public administrations and citizens, and because it is an essential enabling technology for digital transformation. In this regard, according to data released by IDC, the overall value of the data economy in the Old Continent today exceeds 350 billion euros and estimates predict a further increase by 2025, when the market will reach 550 billion. In addition to the undisputed and growing economic value, the data market also presents delicate issues of security and geopolitics. From this point of view, according to I-Com, an issue that political decision-makers are called not to underestimate is linked to the consequences that choices regarding digital sovereignty will have on competitiveness: closing in on defense may not prove to be a wise choice, and a technologically autarkic turning point it would risk reducing the international competitiveness of Europe and of Italy itself.
In this regard, according to the I-Com study, they are many and of different nature contraindications of a national protectionist approach to the cloud. Among these, a reduction in economies of scale and the rate of innovation and a potential limitation in the offer of advanced cloud services (in particular Big Data, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things), essential for the digital transformation of the production system. And again, despite the raising of the barriers, further repercussions could (paradoxically) also occur on the overall security level of public bodies and companies, due to the need to independently implement the most advanced cyber protection technologies on a very large perimeter. In practice, the danger of an overly protectionist approach would risk reducing or nullifying the important benefits that would derive from an open, integrated and fully developed cloud market.
"It is important to encourage the interoperability of cloud services and the portability of data and applications, the use of open standards and the sharing of technologies and best practices capable of improving the overall level of innovation of the system", underlined the president I- With Stefano da Empoli. The same economist then added that “an open and competitive European and national cloud market, free from illusory autarkic and statist temptations, represents the best gateway for businesses, public administrations and other organizations engaged in digital transformation”.
After all the bankruptcy example of France is there for all to see and is mentioned in the debate proposed by I-Com: launched in 2009 to provide "State" cloud services to the public sector and businesses, the Andromède project was implemented through a public-private partnership in which the State itself figured as a shareholder of majority and in which some large operators were also involved. However, following failed agreements and financial problems, the initial project was abandoned, leading to the exit of the subjects involved and the interruption of the initially planned services.
