Author's entries

Faced with economic malaise, Europe needs to fully harness all of its natural resources. One vital and valuable resource that remains underused is TV-band and other spectrum.

Where Europe succeeds, we succeed Europe matters to us. For the past thirty years, it’s been our aim to help fuel the European economy with the programs, partnerships, products and services we deliver, through ourselves and others. Our investment has reaped significant return for thousands of new and existing businesses across the continent. In an increasingly hyper-connected world,...

It was in December last year that Microsoft became a part of Vice President Kroes’ initiative to make the Internet a safer place for children. Together with 27 other companies in the ICT sector, from hardware manufacturers to providers of content we committed to work on 5 areas, namely report abuse, privacy settings, content classification, parental controls and take down of sexual child abuse.

2011 was a year dominated by discussions around the debt crisis, but from a technology point of view Europe saw its fair share of milestones and breakthroughs which can greatly contribute to the economy.  Among others, Vice-President Kroes, endorsed the adoption of cloud computing, a technology solution that gives everyone access to scalable computing power and resources, by promising to make Europe...

Today, Commissioner Neelie Kroes announced the CEO Coalition on Child Online Safety. Microsoft is pleased to be a founding member of this coalition.

Connected to the Internet, the PC and mobile devices have created enormous opportunities for people of all ages to enhance the way they work, learn, play and communicate.

Several of the EU’s biggest tech and media companies join together to explore use of TV white spaces spectrum to help meet the fast rising demand for broadband and therefore meet Europe 2020 targets for broadband coverage.

I was recently at a roundtable meeting with Connie Hedegaard, the European Commissioner for Climate Action and many companies representing the financial, manufacturing, technology and transport sectors and NGOs. Part of the discussion was on the EU’s carbon emissions reduction target for 2020 and a move from 20% to 30%.

Cloud computing may indeed become one of the backbones of our digital future”, stated Vice-President Kroes in a speech on "Cloud computing and data protection". While discussing the potential opportunity that cloud computing represents, and that “the free movement of personal data within the EU is another way to help to complete the Digital Single Market in Europe”, she emphasized...

On November 8-11, I took part in the 2010 Care Innovation summit on ‘Going Green’, held this year in Vienna. Participants from across the ICT sector attended the two-day event to better understand how our sector should be part of the answer to reduce greenhouse gases and not part of the problem.

Growth has been the watchword at the Government Leaders Forum (GLF) in London. It’s an event that brings together some of the region’s most influential public sector figures under one roof, in an effort to find new ways to drive sustainable economic growth in Europe.

What Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn released today should not be seen as business as usual to innovation in Europe, but exactly the opposite. The new flagship of the Europe 2020 strategy is a strong signal by the Commission to challenge the way research and development (R&D) is done  and an injection of new excitement to put us in Europe on the global and competitive stage.  

Thanks to technology and a robust broadband network in Belgium, we recently hosted our second ‘Transatlantic debate’ with ICT and health experts in the United States.

Microsoft welcomes the “Digital Agenda for Europe” as a bold roadmap for action. We share the European Commission’s view that technology is an enabler for economic growth, job creation, sustainability and social inclusion. As a company, we are fully committed to working with the European Commission and governments to realize the potential of Europe's digital future.

Microsoft strongly supports the efforts of the European Commission and governments across Europe to build smart, sustainable and inclusive growth outlined in the Europe 2020 strategy.

I recently attended the European Commission’s ICT for Energy Efficiency event in Brussels where four associations representing information and communication technology companies have come together to ensure our industry will be part of the solution instead of the problem.

Hear me talking about the Eye on Earth online tool. This website shows data from thousands of air and water quality stations from across Europe in real-time. (By the way, I say 60,000 stations in the video but I was told I got a little ahead of myself - it's actually 6,000!).

As I had announced on the weekend, yesterday I was lucky to accompany Microsoft’s General Counsel, Brad Smith, to a presentation he gave on the company’s vision on Cloud Computing (find a nice summary by my colleague Steve Clayton here, or just have a look at the speech yourself).

Over the past months there has been a remarkable upraise in discussions around the topic of Cloud Computing (or Software+Services).

At her European Parliament hearing last week, Commissioner-Designate Viviane Reding mentioned online privacy as one of her key priorities.

Copenhagen has succeeded as Kyoto did to bring the world’s attention to issue of climate change.

Earlier this week Microsoft joined with the European Environment Agency to launch a compelling example of how Microsoft’s cloud computing technology can be a real ‘change maker’ in the fight against climate change.

John Vassallo (Microsoft VP EU Affairs) outlines the crucial role small and medium enterprises active in the ICT industry play in strengthening the European Economy.

This week I have been lucky to be one of a handful of business executives speaking at the European Union’s Green Week conference in Brussels.