That may be generally true, but it’s still a simplistic analysis. Despite the economic mess over there, IDC predicts a 30 percent compound annual growth rate for cloud deployments between 2011 and 2016 compared to an 18.5 percent CAGR for the US during that period. Not too shabby. (The researcher said it is monitoring economic developments in Western Europe  and could adjust its predictions as needed.)

Here’s some of what you need to know about how cloud is rolling out in Europe, gleaned from researchers, vendor executives, and other experts. But stay tuned: we’ll be talking about these trends and more at GigaOM’s upcoming Structure Europe event in Amsterdam next month.

1: Seems obvious, but Europe isn’t the US

With the European Union and Eurozone, North Americans tend to see Europe as a more monolithic market than it really is. Europe is still a collection of many, smaller countries, lots of languages, lots of governments, and thus, represents a much smaller, more fragmented market than the US.

Then, it’s important to realize that cloud takeup is very different country to country, according to Chris Weitz, director of Deloitte Consulting LLP. The US has the benefit of being a large, rather homogeneous market so monster providers like Amazon can take off. Not true in Europe.

“There are not many ‘pure’ cloud tech providers in Europe. You have the work being done by the telcos [like] BT, FT, Telefonica…); the large and smaller integrators; and hosting providers,” said Ignacio Llorente, director of OpenNebula, a European provider of open-source cloud technology used at CERN and other sites.

And, depending on your definition of cloud, adoption rates vary. A lot. While tons of Europeans use Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings like Salesforce.com, adoption of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is slow, in his view because there aren’t many big suppliers. There is no Amazon of Europe, except for, well Amazon itself, which runs its Western Europe zone out of Dublin.

2: Cloud adoption is not following previous tech patterns

In the past, early tech adopters in Europe tended to cluster in the UK and the Scandinavian countries (cell phone take up is an example, where the Finns led the pack.) But that migration trend is not necessarily holding true in cloud. “Normally the path leads from the UK to the Nordic countries and then goes south to the Mediterranean countries,” said IDC Research Director Mette Ahorlu. “That’s not clear in cloud. Southern Europe is struggling economically but we see some indication that they see cloud as a way to catch up,” she said.

Robert Jenkins, co-founder of Cloud Sigma, a Zurich-based IaaS provider, said he sees quite a few new customers from Greece, which has been rocked by bad financial news for the past year. “Maybe it’s just that their hardware is coming up for renewal or they’re sick of paying VMware fees. Maybe austerity makes public cloud look better,” he said.

3: Data protection FUD is overblown

One of the discussion threads around European cloud is that data protection laws in Germany and other countries are hindering adoption. The perception is that these countries require that data about their citizens be stored locally. The US Patriot Act is one commonly sited as a reason: These sovereign countries do not want to put data in American jurisdiction. Deloitte’s Weitz and others call this perception both wrong and frustrating. “It stops people from progressing, and really the legislation is very clear about what can and can’t happen if people just take the time to understand it,” he said.

If companies understand the nature of private clouds — which keep key data in-house but can connect to public cloud for some tasks, then there really is no issue, he said.

4: Interest in private cloud is hot, hot, hot

In the last year, IDC’s Ahorlu has noted a substantial shift among Europeans who she says are “mad about” private cloud. A healthy 73 percent of companies surveyed in 2012 indicated that are “moving to a cloud” of some sort, up from 67 percent last year. But 55 percent of those 2012 respondents said they’re moving to private cloud, up from 36 percent last year.

Once that concept of private cloud and the European Community rationalizes its data protection laws, the path to cloud will get a lot easier.

5: Cloud sweeping vs. cloud washing

What may shock Americans who are weary of the eternal “cloud washing” that happens in this market, the exact opposite is the case in Europe. Here, any new tech product inevitably gets painted as a cloud product whether there is any truth to that claim or not. In Europe, if you want to sell something, you’d better use the “C word” sparingly, says Nigel Beighton, the international VP of Technology for Rackspace, the San Antonio, Texas-based provider of managed hosting and cloud services worldwide.

“The term cloud makes people nervous,” he said. In other words, if you want to sell cloud services, go ahead, but call them something else.

Feature photo courtesy of Shutterstock user Iakov Kalinin

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It’s an argument to which employees apparently respond: Oh please! According to a surprising new survey from Deloitte, many executives have bought the party line on the effects of enterprise social media far more than frontline employees, who largely view social as more empty rhetoric out of the C-suite.

The Core Values and Beliefs survey from Deloitte asked 1,000 employees and about 300 executives for their views on social tools and the impact of these technologies on their organizations. In news that will surprise those who see social tools infiltrating organizations from the bottom up, driven by employee’s comfort with consumer social, the poll found much greater enthusiasm for social among execs that frontline team members.

• 45 percent of executives say social media has a positive impact on workplace culture; 27 percent of employees agree
• 41 percent of executives believe that social networking helps build and maintain workplace culture; 21 percent of employees agree
• 38 percent of executives say social media allows for increased transparency; 17 percent of employees agree
• 46 percent of executives say social media and online collaboration tools are critical to building and maintaining relationships with colleagues; 27 percent of employees agree

What do these numbers add up to? “Our research suggests executives are possibly using social media as a crutch in building workplace culture and appearing accessible to employees. While business leaders should recognize how people communicate today, particularly Millennials, they must keep in mind the limits of these technologies. The norms for cultivating culture have not changed, and require managers to build trust through face-to-face meetings, live phone calls and personal messages,” said Punit Renjen, chairman of the board, Deloitte.

Or in other words, implementing social technologies is all well and good, but employees will see through any claims that these tools are transparency, culture or cohesion boosting if the implementation is not backed up with an accessible, democratic approach by executives.

Do you think executives are often only paying lip service to the bureaucracy busting democratic ideals of enterprise social? 

Image courtesy of Flickr user fredcamino. 

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Recent research that MIT Sloan Management Review conducted in collaboration with Deloitte reveals a striking pattern, according to an intriguing post in MIT Sloan’s Improvisations blog. When asked whether they believed social business was important, those at the biggest and smallest firms showed the greatest interest, with a steep fall off in interest among those at mid-sized organizations. Here are the percentage of respondents who agreed with the importance of social business by company size:

• Less than 1,000 employees: 21.2 percent
• 1,000-5,000 employees: 13.6 percent
• 5,000 – 10,000: 13.6 percent
• 10,00-100,000: 12.1 percent
• More than 100,000: 21.2 percent

Why might this be? The post speculates that, “social tools enable smaller organizations to appear bigger, and larger companies to appear ‘smaller’ — more accessible, responsive, and nimble,” noting that 31 percent of the smallest firms thought these tools were important to growing revenue, a much higher percentage than at larger companies. Gerald Kane, a professor at Boston College, suggests this may be because smaller firms can use social tools “as a way of increasing their voice, as a way of connecting with customers.” The analysis of the findings in ongoing, according to the post, and the final results will be published sometime this spring, so those who are interested should keep their eyes open for the full report.

In the meantime, what’s your reaction to these initial results – are mid-sized firms underestimating the potential benefits of social or are these tools really of less value to businesses of this size?

Image courtesy of Flickr user Nicholas_T.

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Lisa Larson, Rackspace VP of technical sales

At this stage of the game, most companies know at least some of the benefits of cloud computing —  the ease of capex vs. opex budgeting, simpler rollout of standard applications and processes, etc. But many are still not sure which applications and data should move first, which should be entrusted to a private as opposed to a public or hybrid cloud, and which should absolutely, positively, stay in the data center.

There’s nothing a like a little high-level handholding to make a cloud move a little less scary and that’s why Rackspace is beefing up its customer advisory services and cloud service providers in general are lining up systems integrators to help customers make the transition. These integrators, in theory, provide vendor agnostic consulting and implementation services to big IT buyers — although many of them also field vendor-specific practices.

Rackspace is launching a cloud-readiness assessment program to help customers who want to do cloud figure out which of their applications and data should make the move first, said Lisa Larson, VP of technical sales for the San Antonio, Texas,-based hosting company and cloud service provider. Rackspace architects can walk customer reps through their budget and timeframe, review their current applications and come up with a deployment roadmap.

A new IT Evolution program brings in the customer’s CIO, the CIO’s direct reports, plus leaders in non-IT business units to discuss cloud strategy — which workloads should go to public, private or hybrid clouds (all of which would be, in this case, powered by Rackspace of course.)   The assessments are paid engagements,  although there is a free half-day workshop, Larson said.

It’s an interesting time to be in the cloud computing infrastructure business. More companies definitely feel the need to put at least some of their storage in the cloud  – how else to describe the explosion of business-focused cloud storage companies? But there is still a ton of customer concern about where sensitive data should reside and essential compute loads should run.

Sorting it out: What goes to which cloud?

Larson said the rule of thumb is to put test and development into the public cloud first. E-commerce  applications are suited for a hybrid model that lets the front end takes advantage of the utility-based pricing of the public cloud while the backend technology for handling PCI and compliance remains in a secure private cloud.

Third, standard productivity applications —  like email and Sharepoint  should go next , with Sharepoint probably best for a private cloud and email going either public or private.

Last to move beyond the data center are truly mission critical applications that run the business –the SAP or other ERP system, for example, as well as the rest of the financial applications.

Bringing in reinforcements: SIs

Rackspace and giant public cloud competitor Amazon are also working more with systems integrators — third parties that advise large companies on their IT game plans — to help customers navigate the cloud shift. Amazon has cultivated ties with Accenture, Deloitte, and Capgemini for some time. Rackspace also works with Accenture, HCL and Wipro.

There is a much more deliberate effort by AWS now to work with these types of partners,” said Forrester Research analyst James Staten. “The push is to help these partners understand public cloud and help influence their enterprise customers to see the security and maturity of it, help with the Uneven Handshake and bring them on board.”

Capgemini was one of the first global system integrators to come aboard with AWS in 2008, then Accenture and Deloitte. “The rest are following the money,” Staten said.

David Ryan, CTO of integrator  General Dynamics IT said there is a broad array of use cases that can go to the public cloud– disaster recovery, research and development, software development and batch processing included.

But any truly sensitive data needs to remain under lock and key — in the company data center. “Right now, even in those use cases, sensitive data still stays in-house. There is a big challenge of indemnity that I think [cloud service providers] have to get over before we see things move heavily into the public space, at least from a government perspective.”

Feature photo courtesy of Flickr user Pernell

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In a new report bringing together dozens of predictions in telecoms, media and technology for the year ahead, Deloitte paints a picture of a “dumber” smartphone than the ones we know today. Largely absent will be Android, iOS, RIM (NSDQ: RIMM), Symbian and Windows Phone. In their place, closed, proprietary platforms:

“Many consumers, particularly middle majority adopters, are likely to consider phones as smart if they have touch screens or full keyboards and not what intangible OS is under the hood,” Deloitte writes.

Nor will many of them even carry 3G — instead running on slower data services like GRPS and EDGE, because chipsets for faster data will still cost too much to integrate into cheap handsets.

However, WiFi is likely to become a “standard” feature of these devices, as will email, instant messaging, a pared-down form of apps and a camera — a list of services, that, along with the touchscreens, seem to now be the smartphone bare essentials. As prices for components continue to drop, specifications for these sub-$100 phones will continue to get better (or smarter, as the case may be).

Deloitte says that a lot of these devices are aimed at developing markets, but points out that there is also an opportunity in more advanced markets where economies are “stagnant.”

With companies like Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Samsung looking drive improvements and experience in their feature phone platforms (Nokia recently buying Smarterphone, and Samsung looking to progress its bada platform by merging features with its new Tizen project), the implication here is that the boom in smartphones is even driving growth in the feature phone segment — feature phones, that is, that can now be considered slightly less-clever smartphones.

Deloitte predicts that in 2012, there will be at least 300 million of these sub-$100 handsets sold to consumers worldwide, which they have added to the 200 million they estimate were sold at this price point this year.

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The Seattle tech blog Geek Wire, which reported that price, was the first to report the acquisition on December 30, although it was only officially confirmed by Ubermind today.

The deal is being pitched as Deloitte’s next and logical step in the business consulting and professional services that it already offers to enterprise clients across different verticals — although in reality it appears to be the larger company’s first step to buying in strong mobile product expertise.

“We are focused on maintaining what was working,” notes Ubermind in its statement.

But it will be interesting to see how, and if, the new partnership changes what kind of work Ubermind produces, and if it can keep its startup mindset while becoming part of a behemoth. Until now Ubermedia was a relatively small business, with about 200 people working for it across Seattle and Denver. Deloitte, the second-largest consultancy around after PwC, is a global multi-national with more than 180,000 employees. Not exactly fleet of foot.

Still Ubermind has already racked up experience working for at least one of the biggest companies around in terms of market cap, and one of the biggest tech juggernauts of the decade. Among clients like Target and REI, for whom it develops mobile apps and interactive websites, the company has worked for more than 10 years with Apple: its engineers, the company says, “worked on the very first Apple Online Store” and it has also worked on iTunes, Apple’s print services, Apple’s online store and the company’s own iPhone app.

Ubermind says it will become part of Deloitte’s tech practice, leading in strategy, creative, mobile apps and web development for enterprise clients.

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Part 1: The state of the company

Part 2: The changing corporate world

Part 3: The modern workforce

Here are all of the videos in one single stream:

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Deloitte found that 58 percent of the almost 2,000 respondents reported that their main criteria for buying a smartphone were quality, camera, size, keyboard and price. Just 18 percent said apps and their functionality influenced their buying decision. This would seem to echo a recent Pew Internet study that found only 35 percent of people have apps on their phones, and only 25 percent actually use them. For all their growth in the last couple of years, apps aren’t quite mainstream yet.

But here’s the thing: Once people start using the apps, many are finding it’s changing their habits and relationships with other devices. Among app users, 42 percent have diminished or lessened their use of MP3 players, and 38 percent have done the same with AM/FM radios. Another 30 percent favor their phone over handheld gaming devices, and 28 percent are avoiding their GPS personal navigation devices.

A few other bits of data: 62 percent said having access to certain apps have caused them to use their phone in places they wouldn’t before, and 41 percent of users use their smartphone as a laptop replacement while away from home. Users are still learning about the benefits of apps, which despite Apple’s many ads, is still an education process. But once people get going using them, they see how useful the tiny programs are, specifically in getting them easy access to content or services on the Internet. According to the Pew study, the average adult app user has 18 apps.

This jibes with a report from Finnish mobile analytics company Zokem which reported that half of mobile data volume happens now through apps, not a browser. People are realizing that apps are like a quick on-ramp to the Internet and provide usefulness that rivals, and in some cases eclipses, a mobile browser.

Ed Moran, director of Insight and Innovation at Deloitte, said app makers, smartphone manufacturers and carriers need to do a better job explaining how smartphones have become computers in your pocket, capable of doing a lot of things you can’t do on a PC. He also said making apps easier to use will also increase their adoption. As that happens, app use will only go up, he said.

While hardware is still the lure for many buyers, it’s the apps and the Internet access they offer that should become a major selling point in the future.

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user dougbelshaw.

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Venture capital firms put some $1.9 billion into clean tech startups in the first three months of 2010, setting an all-time first quarter record and marking the third consecutive quarter that the sector has led in VC cash raised, the Cleantech Group and Deloitte reported in March. VC and private equity investment rose to $2.9 billion, and overall global clean energy investment reached $27.3 billion in the first quarter, a drop from $31.6 billion in the previous quarter, but still better than the $20.8 billion figure reported in the first quarter of 2009, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said this week.

Those are all positive signs for the sector’s growth. But by and large, VCs are still waiting for a big exit. Some of the highest profile IPO hopefuls have collected hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital investment, and are getting old enough for their backers to start expecting returns. These companies include electric car maker Tesla Motors, biofuel catalyst developer Codexis and thin-film solar panel maker Solyndra, which have all publicly announced IPO plans, as well as smart grid startup Silver Spring Networks, which is widely rumored to be considering a public offering. In all, some 19 green startups have filed for IPOs since September, but they yet to sell public shares, Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported this week.

Solar power, which has long taken the lion’s share of venture capital, lost its place to green transportation in the first quarter’s VC haul, with solar taking some $322 million compared to green transportation’s $704 million. But more than half of that was the $350 million raised by Palo Alto, Calif.-based Better Place to boost its multi-billion dollar plans to build car charging and battery swapping stations in half a dozen countries. VC investors in solar and biofuels have found it extremely difficult to raise money to build factories they need to compete in the marketplace, but that task could seem fairly small, compared to rebuilding the world’s transportation infrastructure for electric and plug-in vehicles.

The year so far has also underscored the continuing might of China in the clean technology space. China saw some $6.5 billion in clean energy investment in the first quarter, compared to $3.5 billion in the U.S., Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported. On top of a 2009 which saw China invest some $34.6 billion in clean energy and technology, compared to $18.6 billion U.S. and $22 billion invested in the UK and Europe. As for clean energy, wind power continued its dominance, with $14.1 billion invested globally. The fact that 12 of the 19 of the IPOs on deck for this year are wind and solar power companies indicates the relative maturity of that sector as well. Utilities continued to grow their investment in renewables and smart grid projects in the first quarter, and corporate direct investment in green energy and clean technology saw a 140-percent jump from the last quarter of 2009, Cleantech Group and Deloitte reported.

Read the full report, “Cleantech Market Overview, Q1 2010,” for more insights and a glimpse of what Q2 has in store.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user OregonDOT

Basically, it’s a Space Invader clone wherein when you kill an alien, a file in your home folder is deleted. It looks like it’s evil — and designed to perform such a task without the knowledge of the Mac owner on which the program resides. But it isn’t. It’s an art project that clearly advertises its purpose and nature to all who would wish to use it.

The game, dubbed Lose/Lose, is the brainchild of Zach Gage, who created the program as part of an online art installation and released it for public download in September. It’s intended purpose is not to dupe unsuspecting gamers, but to pose questions about the relationship between killing in video games and real-life moral issues. Gage says as much in a statement on his web site:

By way of exploring what it means to kill in a video-game, Lose/Lose broaches bigger questions. As technology grows, our understanding of it diminishes, yet, at the same time, it becomes increasingly important in our lives.

Even if a user were to download the game from a different, less well-intentioned place, the game itself warns users right when it opens, stating that “Killing in Lose/Lose will likely result in files on your hard drive being deleted. You have been warned.” Of course, that doesn’t mean that an intelligent programmer couldn’t remove or change said message, and redistribute the game themselves with the intent of causing harm.

That’s what Symantec’s worried about, and why the firm decided to issue its warning about the so-called Trojan. Of course, the company took the opportunity to recommend installing security software as a means to protect against this kind of dangerous artistic expression, seeing as that’s the business it’s in.

Should you worry about this game or threats derived from it? Not unless you are one of the slim few whose retro Mac gaming addiction is so acute that you feel the need to hunt around the digital frontier in suspicious and shady locations looking for independent games of questionable quality and without any sort of legit distribution channels. Or if you happen to be a devoted patron of the arts, and therefore can’t resist the urge to download software you know full well will harm your computer and destroy your files, all for the sake of the artistic effect it has. In either case, anti-virus software won’t help.

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