This month, we celebrate the success of a small Dutch start-up named Atomblock that has recently evolved and become a division of a much larger European company named ALSO.  Atomblock is now called ALSO Digital.  It is a cloud-based infrastructure company that helps game publishers, software publishers and retailers to sell their products on a global scale – in other words, providing a cloud...

Online intermediaries contribute more than €430 billion to European economy in 2012; Digital Single Market key to continued growth. The  European Digital Media Association (EDiMA) presented European Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier with a new Copenhagen Economics study which shows that Europe’s online economy is growing at more than 10% per annum, substantially faster than...

You’ve all seen the figures over the past year and more that show high youth unemployment across some European Union Member States. But do people know that technology can have an enabling role in Europe and beyond? 

In recent years, cloud computing has evolved from an amazing innovation with lots of potential into an asset that we can increasingly no longer live without, both on a business and a personal basis,  catalyst of innovation and of economic growth.

We released our 2012 Law Enforcement Requests Report. This is our first Law Enforcement Requests Report. It provides data on the number of requests we received from law enforcement agencies around the world relating to Microsoft online and cloud services and how we responded to those requests. 

Early February, European Commission Vice-President Kroes set-out the Commission’s digital priorities for 2013-14, a package of 7 actions around the regulatory environment for broadband, with the headline Digital Agenda target of ‘100 MBps for every European’ in mind. And that includes efforts ranging from rules on wholesale broadband and engineering costs, to universal...

Today we are celebrating a key milestone with the latest release of Office 365, which recognizes that the modern workplace is changing; that business success is now determined by how quickly people can connect, interact and share information; and that collaboration has a real business value.

Today marks an important milestone for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and Microsoft as we enter into a new partnership to address the digital divide across our Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies around the globe that touch the lives of more than 150 million people each year.

It’s an important time for privacy in Europe and globally, and I want to share few of my insights from recent events in Brussels we organized around Privacy and the revision of the EU Data Protection Directive.

Hilverse is a Polish company founded in December 2011 that runs a flagship project, LifeCircle+, which aims to revolutionise lifesaving methods by offering a comprehensive solution to existing challenges of the blood collection system.

Take a look around you. The way we work has changed fundamentally in recent years, and technology―in particular cloud computing―is a key driver. Traveling across the region and having conversations with hundreds of business leaders across the CEE region over the past two years, it’s clear what cloud computing represents for these businesses: a flexible response to customer’s needs, delivering...

In celebration of the Windows 8 launch, this month our featured SME is Captain Dash, a French company that has developed an app for Windows 8 devices providing a business analytics service powered by the Windows Azure cloud. This app enables the aggregation and synchronization of business data from several web 2.0 services into a unique platform. This allows Captain Dash’s clients to better understand...

The SME deserving recognition this month is Monolith Advertising, an Estonian-Croatian company. It began operations just 3 months ago with the single purpose of revolutionizing offline advertising by transforming existing advertising displays into smart and interactive tools. Monolith Advertising is run by a team of 6 people who, since May 2012, have already managed to partner with major corporate...

In order to celebrate both SME Week and Single Market Week, Microsoft is organising the first out of a bi-monthly series of roundtables in Brussels that aim to bring face to face policy makers and innovative entrepreneurs. They will highlight the success and debate the challenges of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in Europe.

The European Central Bank’s proposal to buy unlimited amounts of crisis-hit government bonds has provided a glimmer of light through the shadows of the financial downturn. In the long term however, it’s clear that Europe must re-engineer its economy to achieve sustainable economic growth and abate record-high unemployment levels, especially among young people.

Worldwide, diagnosis of autism is traditionally a very manual process, one that is labour intensive, expensive, prone to error and without any room for observation. Dutch-based Autitouch has developed an innovative solution that uses Microsoft Surface technology to enable children to play ‘serious games’ that help the medical profession make more accurate diagnoses.

Concern, a global humanitarian NGO, build its worldwide email platform on the cloud in order to reduce IT costs, and to insure efficient communication when providing disaster relief and support.

The SME receiving recognition for the month of August is JamPot Technologies, a company of 12 employees from Northern Ireland. JamPot invented an application that allows other companies and individuals to build their own mobile applications without needing any technical knowledge. JamPot’s innovations simplify the use of sophisticated technology, enabling any of us to create smartphone apps for any...

Late June several hundred academics, entrepreneurs, regulators, politicians, civil society and other ‘digital enthusiasts’ met in Brussels for the second annual Digital Agenda Assembly, led by the European Commission.

A network of hospitals and health care facilities in Germany used cloud computing to increase their access to files in a reliable and secure way while lowering IT costs.

It is Olympics time again and how fast the world of technology has accelerated in four years since the last Games. In 2008, social media still felt relatively new, now it is a ubiquitous part of our daily lives, including how we talk and track sport.

In this case study you can read about how through cloud computing, SIVECO Romania’s solution helped the Ministry of Education lower costs and offer new and more reliable services to the public.

The Helene Elsass Center along with Microsoft Partner Commentor and Mitii Development A/S is building a programme called Mitii Kinect to help children diagnosed with cerebral palsy get the consistent help they need to develop their motor skills. Cerebral palsy is a neurological condition which impairs the motor skills and causes issues with physical movement.

In this case study, you can read about how IEG4 used cloud computing to help local UK governments deliver services faster and minimize costs.

Our July SME of the Month is Admiral Dynamics, a Belgian company that offers expertise in cloud-based solutions with particular focus on the powerful and efficient Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SharePoint tools. Its specialty is providing innovative, dynamic and flexible solutions that allow its customers to increase the efficiency and standard of their operations without making unnecessary...

To achieve a smart, sustainable and inclusive EU, technology can play an important role in preparing European youth with the skills needed.

This week privacy authorities from all 27 European Union member states adopted a long-awaited Opinion clarifying what companies must do to safeguard the private information of Europe’s citizens when these companies use cloud services. Known as the Article 29 Working Party, the Opinion from these experts is essential reading for every business considering moving to the cloud.

The challenges that the public sector needs to face nowadays, including a combination of rising demands, continuing fiscal constraints, and a growing number of complex problems makes it difficult for them to solve with the same approaches and solutions. With this thought in mind, a broad circle of Danish government researchers developed a framework for a new Danish government policy. As outlined by the...

Commerce Guys, a young company based in France, was also the winner of the Microsoft BizSpark European Summit. This innovative eCommerce specialist uses the open source Drupal technology on top of the Windows Azure cloud platform. It provides online merchants with the powerful, responsive and innovative eCommerce solutions needed to succeed with Drupal Commerce.

As youth unemployment continues to rise across Europe, today’s students are more pressured than ever before to make the most of their education and prepare themselves for the jobs of the future.

I am really glad every time I come across examples of technology applied to improve citizens’ lives. As recently announced, the forward looking  Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom decided to run a pilot programme of using touchless technology in the operating theatre.

With over 16,000 innovative start-ups part of BizSpark in Europe, you’d expect the calibre of the top 15 chosen to pitch in the annual BizSpark European Summit to be pretty high.  On June 7th, we had the chance to hear about the future of apps, the business of cloud, and the evolution of tech talent.  More than that, we also witnessed to an impressive showcase of innovative technologies...

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. This year marks the 20th anniversary of one of...

With economic headwinds buffeting Europe, governments are confronted by many difficult challenges. But in these unpredictable times, one thing is certain – that Europe has to embrace change, to do things in a better, more efficient and innovative way.

The SME receiving recognition this month is Avaelgo, a Romanian company of 10 employees that offers IT consulting services, software development, and technical training for customers worldwide. Their flexible and innovative solutions are based on rapid adoption of cutting edge cloud platform technologies, and they ensure that their customers are at the forefront of their respective fields.

A year is a long time in the start-up world: in this fast-paced environment, a lot can change quickly.  So, I was delighted to catch up with Alessandro Rizzoli, founder and CEO of Mopapp, to hear just how far the company has evolved since winning the pitch competition at last year’s BizSpark European Summit. Mopapp aggregates information from all major app-stores, giving mobile application...

Microsoft has a long tradition of tackling tough challenges at a global scale. We have always focused on how our technology can enrich people’s lives, build businesses, and inspire and change the world.

According to the European Commission, the 23 million SMEs in the EU represent 99% of businesses, and are a key driver for economic growth, innovation, employment and social integration. It is therefore crucial that EU institutions, governments and the private sector nurture new innovative companies, promote successful entrepreneurship and improve the business environment for SMEs and start-ups.  This...

Back in 2010, I had a vision to build an information system that would advance the pace of delivering quality healthcare and challenge the perception that public institutions are slow moving.

In this case study, you can read about Global Business Register (GBR) and their cloud-based solution that aims to make the internet a safer place.

Small businesses can provide valuable solutions to the Public Sector, as Portuguese SME CaveDigital has demonstrated since 2005. Its 8 employees are committed to increasing the value of their clients’ technological investments by offering cloud-based solutions. Based in Portugal, their operations have extended across Europe, and North and Latin America since they formed 12 years. CaveDigital reaches...

A start-up created by two British medics combines social networks and cloud computing to make hospital staffing more efficient.

Removing barriers to boost cloud computing opportunities, letting our industries and SMEs grow and better compete inside and outside the European Union.

Three years ago, Microsoft adopted a broad environmental strategy. This strategy included commitments to reduce the impact of our operations and products, and to accelerate the use of information technology in addressing serious environmental issues. Our CEO sent out a company-wide email detailing our strategy, and highlighted some of the steps the company would take to be more environmentally responsible.

Globally, SMEs are one of the world’s most powerful engines of growth and jobs. It is estimated that 85% of net new jobs in the EU between 2002 and 2010 were created by SMEs, so clearly this community is critical to the overall health of the European economy. It is a community that too often feels its voice isn’t loud or large enough to impact policy level discussions, however we believe that...

The on-going debate around the world’s economic recession may be an unpleasant topic to address, but in my job as Vice President for Public Sector in Europe, Middle East and Africa, I face this issue every day when meeting with customers and partners, and I believe we need to continue addressing it in order to solve it!

One problem, one solution, right? If I use some metaphors in my consulting work over and again, it’s because they work.

I believe that SMEs are key to Europe’s economic recovery and I have several reasons that support my thinking. The first reason is sheer volume: there are almost 21 million SMEs in the European Union and 90 % of these have fewer than ten employees. Imagine the potential if every SME could hire just one more person!

We have entered a new era in computing, one in which users are utilizing computing power that they do not own directly and which is located somewhere else, in “the cloud”.

Most successful entrepreneurs are naturally enthusiastic and optimistic people.  They have to be, because they have to believe in their potential to turn dreams into reality.  And this positive attitude is pervasive, even in these tough economic times.  Why?  Because an increasing number of start-ups and other small businesses know that turbulent times create opportunities.

Microsoft Ireland Research has been working on electricity grid research that allows the exact energy consumption and emissions to be measured for any piece of computation performed in a data centre. This allows past or predicted emissions to be calculated for any computation performed in the cloud and opens the doorway to measuring and reducing the emissions produced by data centres around the world.

Electronic voting can affect local, regional, federal and European institutions (political elections), companies (union elections, surveys), individuals (surveys). The target audience is broad and the remote vote can give a response to these multiple cases. Securing the vote and guaranteeing the reliability of results are fundamental success factors while implementing evoting solutions. Finally, the...

IBOR (Intergraal Beheer Publieke Ruimte) is an innovative smart control and management system for public areas. By remotely maintaining and controlling public infrastructure such as street lights, IBOR helps to save energy, decrease maintenance costs and reduce CO2 emissions. Delivered through the cloud, the tool is expected to help reduce urban area energy use by 25 to 40 per cent.

The Citizen Interaction Solution (CIS) is a case management tool for customer services on a multi-channel basis including in person, web, phone, email/facsimile and SMS. The solution is centered on the relationship between the organisation and its clients, being the front-end for the customer service and customer support. CIS targets the specific market set of Public Sector eGovernment multi-channel citizen...

Atomblock’s solution is designed to take away all the hard work involved in publishing and selling content  - such as video games – online.  With Atomblock, companies can become e-retailers in less than a week, complete with links to social media.  It is ideal for retailers who want to create online stores, but do not want invest in the time, cost and expertise themselves.

General theme: Innovative SMEs: the key to economic regeneration in Europe Time & Date: 09:15 – 13:00, Tuesday 27th March 2012 Venue: Renaissance Hotel, Rue du Parnasse 19, 1050 Brussels

The global financial crisis has challenged many businesses across the region, both large and small. In the fight to get Europe back to broader economic health, technology may not solve all of the problems but it does have a major role to play. By freeing up investments made to maintain technology infrastructure, businesses can instead focus on core operations and their talent. A new Microsoft-commissioned...

The roundtable discussion revolved around exploring the impact of cloud computing on the European economy and examine the challenges of the existing legislative frameworks.

French company and IAMCP (International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners) member, ASCOT, demonstrates the potential for a small company to tailor cloud computing services for particular sectors: in this instance, the hotel business.

Microsoft has been closely involved in the incubation and activity of SIENA and its preceding projects.  As the EC funded Venus-C project and our other cloud research engagement collaborations around the world approach the end of their second year, we have taken stock of the lessons we have learned and we chose to share our most interesting findings with the Cloudscape community.

When Europeans use cloud computing services, they are connecting to large data centres for the computing power they need.  When they want more cloud services, they need more computing power capacity in those data centres.

It’s an exciting time to be part of the rapidly changing technology environment. Just think of the changes in the tech sector over recent years. High speed broadband and mobile wireless are growing with the corresponding massive increase in internet users.

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 this case study, you can read about Zartis, a company bringing job-hunting into the 21st century with cloud computing.

With an uncertain economic forecast and a decrease in budgets, governments must reduce their spending while, at the same time, continue to deliver the quality services demanded by citizens. Government agencies now need to innovate and focus on creating efficient and affordable ways to make a real impact on the people they are there to serve. It’s about gaining efficiencies, meeting constituent...

In this case study, you can read about SkillPages, an Irish business that developed a platform to transform the way people with skills connect to the people who need them.

The London School of Economics study investigates what the real economic effects of cloud are likely to be, and especially what that tells us about employment and job skills in the near future.

The North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) Police is the largest police force in Germany with 50,000 police officers serving about 19 million people. The NRW Police uses technologies that benefit their constituents, and mobile technology is one of them.

The Kingdom of Denmark: the Southernmost of the Nordic countries, bordered by Germany, Sweden and Norway.  Its governance comprises three countries: Denmark itself, the Faroe Islands and Greenland.  Original birthplace of the legendary Vikings, it also happens to home to a vibrant entrepreneur community. After working with startups in Denmark for many years, I can definitely say that despite...

At the recent Fuelling the European Economy event, Vice-President Kroes reiterated her belief that the flexibility and efficiency of cloud computing will ‘change our economies’, and she is determined to help resolve barriers to adoption to help Europe become ‘cloud-active’.

As always on our website, we try and bring you a wide variety of opinion pieces from specialist guest bloggers from both the private and public sector.

If doctors could use natural user interfaces, like gestures, surgery could be quicker and safer.

The internet really started to ‘take off’ for businesses and consumers to use about 20 years ago.  Quite a bit of regulation has changed since that time to make internet ‘e-commerce’ easier, cheaper and safer.

Our January European Cloud SME of the Month is Link, a Portuguese company that provides businesses with innovative consulting, management solutions, and specialized services. Link helps their customers to streamline business operations and achieve their goals without having to maintain cumbersome processes. Cloud computing platforms are now enabling Link to provide these services more effectively.

Look at the glass – what do you see?  Is it half full?  Is it half empty?  To a lot of start-ups, neither matter because they see a third way. Maybe they can do something totally different with the glass and on a big scale.  And it is this ‘out of the box’ thinking that is behind a whole new generation of start-ups, who if we give them a chance, could bring revenue into...

Today, citizens in developed countries look for increased engagement and efficient services; they want more responsiveness and collaboration with Public Sector entities similar to the experience they have as consumers with industry and businesses. Governments need to adapt to these needs while working hard to build economic growth and prosperity in their countries. There is a need to look for approaches to...

It’s hard to believe that the well-known term ‘BRIC’ has now been in use for a decade, yet November 2011 marked the ten year anniversary since Goldman Sachs analyst Jim O'Neill established the phrase grouping Brazil, Russia, India and China together as ‘emerging markets to watch’. Aside from this anniversary reminding us all how fast a decade can pass, it’s remarkable to...

Efficiency and Opportunity: How Cloud and Technology Innovations are Powering Digital Public Services

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...

In this case study, you can read about how Aer Lingus scales up their operations with cloud computing and improves customer experience to drive revenue for the company.  

The challenges posed by Europe’s ageing population are pushing policymakers to act quickly before the health systems become unsustainable. This drive for improved efficiency and cost effectiveness in healthcare systems is increasingly encouraging stakeholders to embrace technology-based health solutions.

In this case study, you can read about Belgacom, a telecommunications company being able to focus on increasing competiveness after unifying its IT systems with cloud computing.  

In this case study, you can read about London Borough of Newham’s leading example of utilizing cloud computing in public sector services and sharing technology with neighbouring boroughs which has resulted in improved service delivery and digital engagement with its citizens.  

We are constantly hearing that the labour market is changing with new kinds of jobs needing new sets of skills.

Cloud computing is currently considered to have great potential in mitigating the financial and administrative difficulties of public administrations in Germany. It promises to both optimize the use of IT resources, and encourages a great variety of collaboration options.

This month’s European Cloud SME of the Month is MailTalk™, a Danish company that provides a platform for “digital dialogue”, enabling more effective and productive marketing and communications.  MailTalk is a very young company, with 10 employees, but sees global potential.  MailTalk’s sells advanced software tools that can help any organisation both automate and...

Few would deny the transformative impact the digital economy has had on business and world affairs in the past fifteen years. In the mid-1990s, a majority of people had not heard of the internet; online streaming (let alone DVDs) were not yet invented; software was still distributed on 3.5 inch floppy disks that were neither floppy or round, while today, everything from content to operating systems is...

Video games are a worldwide boom industry and Europe is one of the strongest regions for potential growth. And much of that is being driven by small businesses and young entrepreneurs, who could turn their ideas into something big. Take Angry Birds from Rovio which started out as a small mobile games development studio in Finland. Now it’s a worldwide phenomenon.

In this case study, you can read about the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), a non-profit that has not only gained transparency with its operations through cloud computing, but has also helped protect music rights of musicians and producers who are an integral part of the SME economy in Ireland.

Last month I revealed the recent outcomes of the white paper “Cloud Computing in Turkey: Players, Policies, Challenges and Opportunities” at a Cloud Computing conference hosted in Turkey.

This event has taken place. You can read our post-event summary here. Microsoft is hosting its 3rd annual eHealth event that examines how ICT can enable advanced patient-centric healthcare in Europe.

Not too long ago the geospatial industry enjoyed a fair amount of anonymity. Those who worked in the profession drew blank stares at social gatherings when the topic of discussion took the inevitable “what do you do?” turn. “Mapping” was an easy enough response, though the impression left was that of the AA or Michelin Road Atlases.

Wall Street Journal Tech Europe has become established as one of THE go-to places to find about the challenges and trends facing Europe’s ICT start-up community.  It’s also a great showcase for some of the brightest and best examples in the region.

Doctors want to reduce their administrative work and patients want easy access to healthcare. Why not use mobile technology to help them?

Cloud Computing: What IT Professionals Need to Know. Curiosity has been sparked as to what the emerging roles and skill sets IT professionals and Developers should look to acquire as we transition to the cloud! Microsoft Learning has released a paper that takes an early look at just that!

KMS Sales and Services offers data solutions to help the healthcare industry manage facilities, staffing, and patient needs. Its service is especially useful for healthcare providers, including hospitals, clinics and insurance suppliers struggling to implement healthcare reform and to manage shrinking budgets. It helps them estimate future demand for healthcare and plan business development, when market...

The world is changing. We now have something called cloud computing!

More than ever now, the European Commission needs to focus on building and growing the high-performance computing (HPC) market. High-performance computing (HPC) uses supercomputers to solve advanced computation problems and is a key enabler of ground-breaking innovation that creates high wage jobs and allows Europe’s competitiveness to be maintained.

Success in the public sector today rides on not only being able to do more with less, but also being able to meet and exceed citizens’ expectations.

In 2001, when chartered accountant Jacob Wandt set out to create the e-conomic accounting software – an online cooperation platform for accountants and their customers – “the cloud” was not a yet common phrase in the software industry.

Hosted by Microsoft and the Fraunhofer Research Institute, the roundtable helped identify the main elements of the upcoming European Cloud Strategy and how this will affect European companies, government institutions and citizens.

In this case study, you can read about innovative entrepreneurs that opened the doors to Italian small business in helping ministries with commercial waste management.

In this case study, you can read about a partnership between Microsoft and the Spanish company, Telefónica in creating a solution for software developers to minimise their business risk by simplifying revenue collection.

SMEs form the fabric of the European economy; are they also the fabric of the European cloud?  This week, as a contribution to SME Week in Brussels, Microsoft hosted another of our Cloud Computing Policy Roundtables, this time on the topic ‘Building a European cloud by and for SMEs’.  The intent was to explore the opportunities that cloud computing has for European SMEs, and any...

I am coming back with another example of an innovative business that helps build the European cloud market, Cigler Software.

Looking for web-based teaching tools to prepare its students for the future, Kello School in Finland deployed Microsoft Live@edu to give students a rich online learning experience, foster peer collaboration and enable students to work away from school all within a secure online environment.

I truly believe that Europe has an immense potential to innovate. As stated by the EU Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be the powerhouse of the Innovation Union, as they represent more than 99% of all businesses and employ more than 90 million people in Europe.

More than 100 million people in Western Europe will buy a smartphone this year. Within minutes of opening the package they will be setting up connections to mail servers, downloading third-party applications and synchronising music and games with their existing online life.

We had the great pleasure to chat with Julie Meyer, one of the leading champions for entrepreneurship in Europe, at this year’s Microsoft BizSpark Summit. Julie talked to us about the business ideas that get traction with investors, gave us some tips and tricks on successful entrepreneurship, and the role of cloud computing in driving business and economic growth in Europe. Julie introduced the...

In this case study, you can read about how Barcelona, a city with a reputation of being a premiere location for business conferences, has developed a “new way of working” for its citizens and tourists through cloud computing. The city of Barcelona in Spain serves more than 1.6 million inhabitants and draws about 6.5 million visitors each year. Many citizens work remotely...

In recognition of SME Week and in celebration of entrepreneurship in Europe, we are hosting a roundtable discussion on the benefits of cloud computing for European SMEs – as creators, service suppliers, and consumers. We invite you to join this discussion, as well as a short tour of technology demos, which will concentrate on cloud services developed by European SMEs.

As we mentioned several times before, cloud computing is an evolution in the technology industry that promises significant economic benefits in Europe – for both users and technology providers. SMEs are the engine of economic growth in Europe, and as users, SMEs will quickly take advantage of the cost reductions and productivity gains enabled by cloud computing.  Added to this, there are also...

10 capitals in just 20 days: this is the plan of Ben Rooney, editor of the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Europe, with the aim “to take the temperature of the continent and talk to the hottest start-ups in the coolest places.”  Starting on September 10th in Tel Aviv, the tour ends of 30 Sept in Dublin, fitting in Istanbul, Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Tallinn, Moscow, Berlin and Barcelona...

Cloud computing is the crest of the wave of new and better computing possibilities – giving more efficient and cost-effective ways to run small and large organizations, and providing new applications and flexibility for individual and corporate users.  As you may have seen our CEO Steve Ballmer say, “Microsoft is ‘all in’ for the Cloud”. 

In this case study, you can read about how a Madrid based company has developed a cloud solution to enable its 17,000 residents help the city council maintain its 245,000 trees and keep the city green, with the help of an innovative SME – Tecnigral.

Information technology (IT) departments in organisations across sectors are facing difficulties in meeting the growing demand for IT services, due to tight budgets, rising energy costs, and limits on electric power availability. To answer the existing and new demands while remaining productive and competitive, it is important for organisations to embrace IT energy efficiency principles and practices.

Founded three years ago, Kobojo develops games for social media such as Facebook. Now it is developing a business model that transforms virtual currencies into hard euros.

In this case study, you can read about how cloud computing helps the Hungarian Water Rescue Service free up more than 1,500 man-days to focus on saving more lives, with the help of an innovative SME - Central Europe On-Demand (CEOD).

In this case study, you can read about Procore, a Dutch company setting precedence for other SMEs with its flexible, forward thinking business model and way of work with the smart use of cloud computing.

EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger has said that “The cheapest energy is the one we don’t consume”. Private households also need to reduce their energy needs, and doing so makes economic sense too: lowering your room temperature by just three degrees can save 20 percent on heating costs. Even reducing temperature by a single degree can cut consumption by 6 percent.

Cloud computing has all the ingredients of a true revolution in the way business, governments and individuals handle information.

It’s nearly impossible for companies to stay on top of the explosion of useful information about markets, competitors and customers that crops up daily on social media and other websites. But that’s also a business opportunity – and one seized by British start-up, Artesian, which seeks to transform the torrent of web-based information into a wellspring of business intelligence.

In this case study, you can read about how Partners HealthCare has enabled increased accessibility of healthcare by making health data and communication between patients and providers possible virtually through cloud computing.

Governments across Europe increasingly recognize the benefits of making their non-sensitive and non-personal data open and reusable. The topic was outlined in many discussions at the EU Digital Agenda Assembly a few weeks ago. Indeed better access to public sector information based on open data can improve quality of life and facilitate interfacing with governments.

Continuing my cloud conversation with Microsoft International’s president Jean-Philippe Courtois, we now talk about the ongoing availability of cloud technologies for citizens.

Mapping the route ahead for cloud computing, specifically looking at the human capital investment needed to bridge the transition and the question of organizational infrastructure, was recently made relevant to both Italian and EU-level institutions as well as stakeholders at the European Parliament in Rome.

In this case study, you can read about the Lincoln Specialists Schools Group (LSSG) which is making advanced and specialised school courses available to students in Lincoln through cloud computing, and fighting the decline in student population in rural UK – with the help of an innovative SME - F1 Group.

Over the last few decades microprocessors and software have been increasingly present in cars. Today, an average car might contain as many as 50 microprocessors, each with their own piece of software on them. Electric cars have even more electronics on them and it is likely that tomorrow’s car will have even more!

E-skills are no longer required only for those who work in IT departments, but for everyone participating in a digitized economy. The new economy is a digital economy. It's notable that many of the goals and metrics outlined in the European Commission's new Digital Agenda – public Internet use, availability of government services over the Internet, broadband adoption among disadvantaged groups...

I’m glad to see that alongside the topic of sustainable cloud computing, a central theme at this year’s BizSpark Summit will be on funding solutions for small and medium-size businesses (SMEs). It needs to be discussed.

Microsoft and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced the latest awardees for the joint Microsoft-NSF research partnership in cloud computing. As part of this agreement with the NSF, Microsoft is making available access to Windows Azure , Microsoft's cloud computing platform. In addition, a support team of Microsoft researchers and developers is working with grant...

In this case study, you can read about how TradeFacilitate, an Irish company successfully scales-up its operation to serve a larger market without proportionally adding more personnel and technology resources.

Last week Open Source Business Conference (OSBC) did take place in San Francisco. Microsoft announced that, with immediate effect, it will support Windows Server2008 R2 Hyper-V running CentOS, a popular Linux distribution for hosters. This was the number one requirement for interoperability that we heard from that community.

Cloud computing brings great benefits to Europe’s start-ups and SMEs in terms of cost benefits, ease to up-scale their businesses and efficient computing capabilities. Besides using the cloud power to operate their own business, SMEs also have the opportunity to widen their portfolio and innovate by building new applications and services on the cloud platforms.

Early May, European Commissioner for Research and Innovation Máire Geoghegan-Quinn re-stated her desire to go further in cutting red tape and for the Commission to be innovative itself to release the full potential of EU funded research and innovation. She encouraged interested parties who had not yet given their views to respond to the consultation on the Common Strategic Framework for Research and...

Paving the way for new digital technologies such as the transition to the cloud requires a parallel investment in human capital.

How do you offer ICT services to mobile health workers?

Meander needed to convert its timesheet and leave request system from paper to digital. By using a cloud-based set of messaging and collaboration solutions, rather than running its own servers, it achieved cost savings of over 60%.

For Irish entrepreneur John Dennehy, the arrival of cloud computing offered a powerful argument to launch a new company. Dennehy was convinced that many smaller businesses would shift to buying software and computer services delivered and managed over the Internet – the so-called cloud – because it would allow them to save money, grow faster and go global at a fraction of the cost.

I underlined in several of my previous posts that cloud computing brings great benefits such as scalability and increased energy efficiency, but what about the next phase? As data centers grow in capacity and the rate of adoption increases, we need also to look to the future.

Following the recent economic downturn, public sector administration across Europe have had to make some tough financial decisions, whilst still ensuring high quality and cost effective services for the ever more digital citizens in Europe.

SMEs working in the ICT arena  are very aware and started to take advantage of the significant benefits in cloud computing - particularly how it can help drive efficiencies and make products and services available to a wider audience.

In this case study, you can read about how students and staff at the University of Bologna can now collaborate and learn anytime and anywhere, thanks to cloud computing.

Health records are becoming increasingly used by citizens and health professionals to aggregate data that comes from many different sources. At the EuroRec Institute, we promote the use of high-quality health record systems by focusing on the users—their needs and how they interact with health information.

The global scale of climate and energy challenges is daunting. As world population approaches the 7 billion mark a growing majority people now live in cities. These billions of new urbanites need energy; energy for lights, for heating, for cooling; energy for transportation, housing and emergency services, energy for water systems and sanitation, and they want the same conveniences and luxuries that city...

I firmly believe that entrepreneurial initiatives are crucial to the growth of European economy. Startups should be able to operate in a supportive environment while pushing their innovative ideas.

Environmental futurists have said smart cars will increasingly be able to provide drivers GPS information that will help avoid and create traffic.

In this case study, you can read about how the shift to cloud computing has enabled up to 60% cost savings in Italy’s largest paediatric research and treatment centre, freeing up more resources to be invested in research.

In this case study, you can read about cloud computing has enabled the Government of Catalonia to expand its IT infrastructure to support 144,000 users in a cost-effective way.

Can cloud computing put patients in control of their own health information? How can innovations in cloud technology help improve general standards of care across Europe? What are the benefits for healthcare organisations that have adopted the cloud as part of their operational structure? What are the benefits for the users?

If ever proof was needed of the importance of cloud computing to local regional and national governments, then I heard a wealth of evidence during my visit to Rome today.

Last week, I was in Nairobi, Kenya for the United Nations Chief Executive Briefing, where Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, launched the UN’s new energy neutral Nairobi office building. The building is the first of its kind for the UN in Africa and is a global showcase of sustainable design and technology.

Middlesex University serves 33,000 students, with campuses in London and Dubai.  The university was using an on-premises e-mail system based on Microsoft Exchange Server that it wanted to expand to meet the growing volume of e-mail and to offer students a variety of online tools for collaboration.

Did your organization ever face the same problems? Stretched deadlines, missing the right IT infrastructure for launching a highly visible collaboration project, sharing documents with many internal and external stakeholders across various regions.

A question on a lot on Irish people's minds at the moment is: where next for Ireland?  What areas do we need to focus on to restore competitiveness in the country?

The Belgian Federal Public Service of Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment used a cloud-based storage and collaboration environment to ensure that its own staff as well as external users could jointly manage the European Presidency.

Size doesn’t matter anymore, the over-riding lesson we are learning worldwide is that a business that gets ahead of the curve is a smart one, not necessarily a big one.

When I talk with government leaders and chief information officers across our region, I’m often asked questions that seek to learn more about the latest trend towards cloud computing. These questions range from legislative compliance such as data security and privacy, to data formats and interoperability, to budgeting policies and how Microsoft is responding to these specific public sector...

In this case study, you can read about how the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) collaborated with Microsoft in developing an interactive application to engage citizens in the exploration of Mars.

In this case study, you can read about how a French software development company is managing to stay competitive in the gaming industry by having an easily scalable IT cloud infrastructure that can meet demands of the unpredictable social, casual gaming market. Headquartered in Paris, France, Kobojo is a software development company that produces social, casual games that customers can access...

Business is moving to the cloud. According to IDC* predictions for 2011, 80% of new software will be available as cloud services; by 2014, over one-third of software purchases will be delivered through the cloud. 

Efficiency and Opportunity: how the Cloud is powering Future Government. This year, the Government Solutions Forum in Rome brought together partners, customers and international public sector experts. During the 2 days of the event, participants discussed ways to deliver more effective citizen services, showcasing a wide range of ideas and solutions.

On the topic of cloud computing, Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, put a stake in the ground recently at the World Economic Forum, saying that she wanted Europe not simply to be cloud-friendly but also to be cloud-active. I was pleased to see her emphasis on several legal, technical and commercial issues that are most relevant to a...

In this case study, you can read about how cloud computing has provided the Associated Press (AP) with new opportunities to open its revenue streams and find new customers for its content. The Associated Press (AP) provides up-to-the-minute news and information for newspapers, radio, television, and the Internet, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In this case study, you can read about how the European University Institute (EUI) overcame limitations in storage space of its previous email system with cloud computing, achieving 100 times more storage and 43% in cost savings. The European University Institute (EUI) was set up in 1972 by the six founding Member States of the European Communities to provide advanced academic training to...

This week we had the pleasure of announcing strategic industry alliances in the United States with Dell and Royal Philips Electronics (Philips). Dell and Microsoft will collaborate to deliver a business intelligence solution to meet the needs of community hospitals. Philips and Microsoft will collaborate to streamline the workflow of radiologists as they seek to build and understand the complete...

Cloud computing will dramatically lower the barriers many researchers face accessing and generating life science data. This shift is not unlike the one that occurred in the 1970s when the first personal computers were sold.

Office 365 for education will extend learning possibilities to students while helping them master technology they will use in their future careers.

In this case study, you can read about an Irish company which is enabling SMEs in Europe by developing multi-featured and highly customisable HR management tools through cloud computing.

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s General Counsel and Senior Vice President, yesterday gave an interesting speech at the French Assemblée Nationale in Paris. Brad talked about the trends and possibilities of cloud computing, and what needs to be done in the way of better laws and improved industry and government cooperation to get ready for this technological shift. Microsoft also released...

I wanted to share with you an interesting article that my colleague Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental Strategist for Microsoft, recently wrote. His piece offers up some insightful thoughts on a recent study ran to better understand the potential that cloud computing may have to abate carbon emissions and reduce energy consumption for small to large companies.

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s General Counsel and Senior Vice President for Legal & Corporate Affairs, talks to France’s Assemblée Nationale about the opportunities that cloud computing represents for the European Union.

In this case study, you can read about the new way a UK based company is engaging with its customers and building its software business due to the simplicity cloud computing is enabling the deployment of its services.

In this case study, you can read about how HCL Technologies is enabling enterprises to easily monitor its carbon footprint which is helping businesses and governments’ better account and manage carbon emissions.

In this case study, you can read about a Catalonian centre which is helping Spanish businesses become more productive through collaboration with Microsoft in providing Microsoft Office 365, an enterprise-class, cloud-based solution.

The press coverage has been unanimous that the COP 16 in Cancun Mexico exceeded expectations in delivering some tangible results in the effort to combat climate change. As I said in my earlier blog, there was optimism for some sort of success and it is now apparent this optimism was not misplaced. One can only aspire for greater things next year in Durban, South Africa where the COP 17 will be held.

In this case study, you can read about how a Danish transport company has achieved 76% cost savings on IT investments and can now provide a much more reliable information service to its customers, thanks to cloud computing.

I had the pleasure of opening the first European Summit of Microsoft’s Health Users Group this week in Brussels. The focus of the summit was on using cloud computing to create a “win-win” in the provisioning of wellbeing, that is, reducing costs while increasing the satisfaction of patients and health care providers.

In this case study, you can read about how cloud computing helps a Nordic hotel chain save up to 3 million SEK on IT maintenance costs annually.

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.

Momentum is building around cloud scenarios applied to health and wellbeing. To offer clearer understanding of the possibilities offered by the cloud and to gain insight into the experiences of early adopters, we are hosting the Health Users Group European Summit in Brussels. It will take place on Monday and Tuesday, 29 and 30 November, and will bring together over 60 health customers and partners from 19...

In this latest video recorded at the European Summit earlier this year we ask: Is Europe prepared for cloud computing? 

The Europe 2020 strategy is driving massive change across European life. The Barroso Commission is not only striving for a stronger economy and more competitive Europeans but it  demands that we act smart in the process.

We’ve been underlining this idea many times before, the ICT industry has the power to contribute to the worldwide carbon reductions not only within the ICT sector itself, but also to help other sectors and industries such as production, transport, construction and logistics become more sustainable.

As the President of Microsoft International I had the honour of hosting the Government Leadership Forum (GLF) in London.

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.

For some, the talk of cloud computing produces more haze than light, and there is no doubt: we all need to see the deeper analysis of the economics of the cloud in order to make decisions about information technology strategies.  I work with public administrations across Europe, and see that the interest level in cloud computing is high, but there is also widespread desire for better understanding of...

I just saw Rob Bernard our Chief Environment Strategist in an interview on CNN on how we and the ICT industry are trying to tackle the increasing energy consumption of data centers.

Distributed computing has become very common in large scientific communities because of the needs of exchanging scientific data and sharing computing resources which would otherwise not be affordable by a single research institute. Cloud computing brings a number of advantages (cost being one) that now makes it a platform of choice for many research activities.

This Microsoft-hosted workshop will examine how the use of new technologies, especially cloud computing can ease the path toward e-Health. The workshop will gather together important leaders in the European Medical Community as well as Health organizations involved in innovative telemedicine projects. It is being held on November 11/12 in the Microsoft Executive Briefing Centre in Brussels.

This Microsoft-hosted workshop will examine how the use of new technologies, especially Cloud Computing can ease the path toward e-Health. The workshop will gather together important leaders in the European Medical Community as well as Health organizations involved in innovative telemedicine projects. It is being held on November 11/12 in the Microsoft Executive Briefing Centre in Brussels.

This Microsoft-hosted workshop will examine how the use of new technologies, especially Cloud Computing can ease the path toward e-Health. The workshop will gather together important leaders in the European Medical Community as well as Health organizations involved in innovative telemedicine projects. It is being held on November 11/12 in the Microsoft Executive Briefing Centre in Brussels.

I have a job within Microsoft that focuses on interoperability, working with other companies to make sure our products work well together. This is part of the company’s commitment to customers, and we understand that enabling choices creates more opportunities for our customers, partners and developers, and that also will make us more successful as a company in the future.   

It’s a clear message my colleagues gave me at a recent event: the ICT industry and cloud computing are key components in helping to reduce the carbon footprint in Europe.  But of course ICT people would say that, I hear you cry!

In this case study, you can read about an Italian company that was able to quickly develop and deploy its software to new markets just by using a cloud computing platform.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer toured Europe this week. As a snapshot, here is what he said during one of his visits while in Germany.

In this case study, you can read about LoveCleanStreets, a cloud-based application that helps London authorities manage street care with the help of crowdsourcing – supported by an innovative SME bbits.

The fact is, the world has changed. People are using more and more digital technologies, and the devices and software they use come from a wide variety of sources.

In this case study, you can read about an Italian company providing flexible, cost-effective communication and collaboration solutions to businesses, especially timely during tough economic times.

Irish company InishTech Software specializes in helping Europe’s technology entrepreneurs adopt flexible licensing terms that help them be more competitive, while safeguarding their Intellectual Property (IP).

How can small businesses succeed in a market as internally varied as Europe? Will current EU regulation further help the growth process for businesses?

The new EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science is starting her term with a strong statement; at a time when many European governments struggle with debt, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn announced the biggest package ever for European research: €6.4 billion!

Last week I joined John Vassallo, Microsoft’s VP for EU Legal and Corporate Affairs, for an interview with Teri Schulz of Deutsche Welle radio. In this short piece John discusses the economic opportunity of cloud computing and some of the associated issues that industry policy makers are currently looking into.

The BizSpark European Summit in Paris proved to be a great platform to exchange ideas and best practices for start-ups in Europe.  In fact, we came away with so much good information to share that we decided to save some of it for after the summer break.

In the final video in our cloud computing interview series we have taken clips from a number of speakers like Geert Ferranti, Sale Director – Ferranti; Jean Michel Davault, Managing Director – Hommes & Process; Wolfram Borchers, CEO – ITA systemhaus.

Interoperability – the ability of different IT systems and services to work together – continues to be an important objective not only for the regulators, but for the industry. This important feature of technology enables users to control their data and allows them to work with products and services from different vendors. As interest in Cloud Computing grows, users are discovering the...

What does the cloud mean for the future production, distribution and consumption of audiovisual services? Does it mean the end of location-based production; lower production values and more user generated content displacing high value material? How can content be made secure and monetised? Is the cloud the answer to pan-EU content availability? Will the cloud overshadow broadcast TV or provide a flash...

In our latest video looking at cloud computing today, Henk Kok, Director of Perrit, explains how cloud computing is enabling a competitive European business environment.

The potential economic gains from cloud computing are greatest when users and suppliers enjoy a large-scale, borderless market - such as the one envisioned in the Single Market initiative. However, in Europe today some barriers limiting the flow of data in the cloud still persists, thus affecting both the productivity gains for users and the number of commercial opportunities for smaller EU companies...

This is another really nice piece on the power of cloud computing. My colleague Mark Drapeau, Director of Social Engagement talks about the massive energy boost this ‘pay as you go’ approach to IT offers anyone moving to the cloud. And he literally means anyone: from the one-man start-up, through to small and medium size businesses, universities and schools, as well as public administration....

This video looks at the experience of entrepreneurs using the Azure platform. Aidan Gallagher, CEO Inishtech & Conor O’Riordan, CEO Tradefacilitate give us a quick overview to why they chose to use Azure for their businesses and the benefits cloud computing brings.  

Recently I was invited to speak about new business models of eHealth at a conference in Denmark. It was surprising that this eHealth conference, The New Age of Health IT, was in fact organized by the International Bar Association!

In this case study, you can read about the cloud solution developed by a French SME currently deployed to more than 3500 users in 300 offices around France.

In this case study, you can read about how MiniLiner, an air-cargo firm is managing chaos caused by scaling up and saving up to €50,000 annually by switching to a cloud-based communications solution for its employees.

In this case study, you can read about cloud provides a simplified communications solution for a Spanish company who went virtual, helping them boost competitiveness and reduce costs.

HealthVault – the Microsoft Personal Health Record platform – is now in Europe! While, in several posts on EMEA Health blog, I was discussing the potential benefits of such a platform in Europe, a first launch happened this June in the UK.

In the third video in our cloud computing interview series Andrea Ferravante - Diamante, gives us the Italian perspective on the potential challenges of cloud computing. 

Today, we try to control just about every aspect of our lives. Technology, software, mobile devices and a culture of individual empowerment means we have greater choice over how, when and where we work and live.

 It’s a type of Rorschach inkblot test: two people could look at the EC’s Communication on the Digital Agenda for Europe and see interesting variations.

In the second of our cloud computing interview series we hear from Juan José Amor Cazorla, Director General – Nextel who gives some insights into the benefits of cloud computing from a Spanish perspective.

The discussion about cloud computing really has come out of nowhere, and yet everywhere in the information and communications and technology industries, we find people talking about it.

If cloud computing is to reach its potential, it needs standards that ensure that different systems work together. But over-rigid standards could hold development back.

Personalised healthcare stands at the confluence of the most powerful technologies in the history of the life sciences.  

Can Europe use cloud computing to stimulate economic growth?  If so, what skills will be needed to make most advantage of this technology trend? 

In this interview Nigel Gibbons, Executive Chariman – Unitech talks about the cloud and how it is changing the way we do business. 

Every year we bring together and discuss trending topics with business start-ups  and growing companies developing products and services on Microsoft platforms. This year we interviewed some of these developers about their views on  cloud computing.

It takes some new thinking to be able to benefit from cloud services.  As much as service providers might offer “seamless”, “trouble-free”, or “integrated” cloud services, customers need to have the insights to position themselves as capable users.   

In this case study, you can read about how Chronorace, a logistics company, handled huge demands for accessing multimedia on its Brussels Half-marathon website after the event with Windows Azure, the Microsoft cloud platform.

You may have caught one of my earlier post in this video series in which I discussed why Microsoft is so involved with start-ups and entrepreneurs and give a few insights into some of the programmes we run to support them.

The Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC) is taking part in a pioneering EU Framework Programme 7 project on cloud computing , Venus-C - a project that aims to foster the development of a cloud computing platform based on virtualisation technologies not for individuals, but for industry and the scientific community.

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and Microsoft joined forces in 2008 to create the BSC-Microsoft Research Centre.

In this case study, you can read about a small Danish business, able to adopt enterprise-class messaging and collaboration software and grow with the help of cloud computing.

In this case study, you can read about how a Swiss consultancy uses cloud to boost business agility and take more time to invest in the people and in their business without worrying about infrastructure. Lodestone is a management consultancy that ensures a lean operational structure by selectively outsourcing its IT functions. It is based in Switzerland and operates across 13 countries.

On June 20th 2012, in the presence of Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt, sustainability legend Gro Harlem Brundtland, IPCC Chair Rajendra K. Pachauri, EU Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard and 150 VIP guests at Rio+20, Eye on Earth has been chosen for the prestigious SUSTAINIA 100 list of solutions. For more information, you can visit:...

A converted chapel in Barcelona is the home for a supercomputing centre that is helping to revolutionise the way we will use cloud computing.

Superbowl Sunday is big business in the US as people all over the nation tune in to watch the American football match of the year. Pizza deliveries soar on what is one of the highest days of food consumption in the US. This year Domino’s Pizza found a new way to cope with the sudden burst of demand on its computing resources: using “the cloud” for extra capacity.

There is one game-changer that can turn the promise of personalised healthcare into a reality. It is healthcare IT, says Alan Davies from GE Healthcare.

In this case study, you can read about how cloud computing helps Dutch orthopaedic centre help 30% more patients and scale up without worrying about continuously expanding or managing escalating IT expenses. Annatommie is an orthopaedic diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation centre in the Netherlands. With ambitious plans to open 14 offices, annatommie needed to automate manual processes to...

In this case study, you can read about YouSAAS, a software vendor who achieved an increase of over 20,000 users in six months due to cloud computing. Founded in 2006, YouSAAS is a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner that offers its reseller and independent software vendor partners a shared platform to sell hosted solutions.

“I believe in horses….The automobile is a transient phenomenon”.

The cloud is one of the most popular terms in IT today but perhaps also one of the least well defined. FUTURES guides you through the how and the why.

We were at the Go digITal event during eSkills week earlier March and spoke to a number of ICT students present.

In this case study, you can read about how the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) worked with Active Web Solutions (AWS) to develop a cost-efficient, cloud-based application to help them save more lives at sea. High numbers of deaths at sea is a major concern for anyone in the fishing industry, with an estimated 24,000 crew members drowning worldwide each year. To try and prevent these...

Computer science can play a major role in fuelling scientific breakthroughs in other fields, but only if it can meet its own grand challenges, said Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer of Microsoft at a symposium in Brussels debating how best to use EU-funded research programmes to solve grand challenges.

In this case study, you can read about the partnership between the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Microsoft to develop the “Eye on Earth” application on cloud to give Europeans data on water and air quality. An agency of the European Union, the European Environment Agency (EEA) provides independent and reliable information on the environment for policy makers and the general...

In this case study, you can read about how Aviva, a global organisation who unites its operations in 28 countries with cloud computing. Aviva is a global life and general insurance services company built around the needs of its customers. It has offices in 28 countries with 54,000 employees serving 50 million customers, and first started operating more than 300 years ago.

The BBC’s Digital Giants series features a video from Steve Ballmer, where he discusses the next big things online and how they will change our lives. Steve talked about three areas: the natural user interface, convergence and Cloud Computing.

The pace of change and development in education has picked up substantially in recent years – largely because of the key role ICT is increasingly playing in both teaching and learning. 

Last week, Commissioner Reding re-stated her desire to reform and modernize the EU’s Data Protection Framework Directive (95/46/EC).

Developers are the lifeblood of Microsoft. I know, I know, it’s a well-worn Microsoft mantra but believe me, it’s never been more true. Today, the hunger for new technologies is only growing.

Our guest blogger today is Riitta Raesmaa, partner and co-founder of Sopima, a Finnish SME and part of the Microsoft BizSpark programme!

In this case study, you can read about how the Swedish Red Cross (SRC) has boosted communication within its organisation by 50%, after implementing the Microsoft Online Service cloud offering. The Swedish Red Cross (SRC) is the largest humanitarian voluntary organisation in Sweden. Their work improving conditions for people requires a great deal of coordination across the organisation, especially...

  In this case study, you can read about how cloud computing has enabled a Dutch hospital to switch to a cost-effective email solution to comply with changes in regulation in a quick and seamless manner.

In this case study, you can read about how a French SME was able to provide a flexible, hosted, and worry-free communication solution for its consultants through cloud. Based in Lyon, France, Peaks is an IT company with a mobile workforce of consultants deployed at customer sites. Peaks wanted better messaging and collaboration tools for its consultants to share data and expedite service. It...

In this case study, you can read about the Royal Mail Group has improved their efficiency by giving its employees reliable & simple ways to access information through the adoption of Microsoft’s cloud solution. In the United Kingdom the Royal Mail Group has expanded their IT services agreement with CSC to include Microsoft’s Business Productivity Suite from Microsoft Online...

In this case study, you can read about how Finnish company used the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to achieve rapid deployment while reducing capital expenditure in a secure way. Microsoft BizSpark member Sopima Oy, has launched an innovative business contract service. Use of the Microsoft Azure platform has helped rapid deployment while reducing capital expenditure.

With the uptake of cloud computing and web3.0 (web2.0 + mobility), consumers will have more access to information than ever before. But what are effective ways to optimize the information they get – and distill the information they need? How to process data meritoriously?

The age of ‘cloud computing’ is dawning, which will allow our data, software and computing power to be on our desktop and extended online as and when needed. This will provide many new opportunities for businesses and other organisations to manage large amounts of data and activities securely, efficiently and cost-effectively.

Our favorite Geek in Disguise, Steve Clayton from the UK, provides on his blog a short and useful summary of Steve Ballmer’s speech yesterday in which the Microsoft CEO described how “we’re all in” cloud computing.

The eHealth landscape offers both opportunities and barriers to policy makers in the EU 27 member states which are not just about technical issues of interoperability and data security and confidentiality.

I strongly believe that innovation is the lifeblood of the 21st century economy. If we just take the way research is done today compared to 15 to 20 years ago we can see a huge difference.

In Europe and elsewhere, computing is experiencing a powerful transformation. Driven by continuous innovations in software, hardware and the Internet, traditional models of computing are gradually shifting.   

Last week I published a video interview I conducted with Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer, where he explains his vision of cloud computing.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer, when he was last in Brussels.

As you may have read before on this site, we opened one of the largest data centres in Europe just last year in Dublin. Large-scale facilities such as this can play a big role in the development of cloud computing, providing companies with better and cheaper computing facilities. Great news to resource-strapped companies in particular.

Microsoft, in partnership with European Voice and its sister publications in Washington DC, Roll Call and Congressional Quarterly, is hosting a high-level transatlantic dialogue on how technology can enable innovation and transformation in the field of health.

Cloud computing is hitting the headlines, and for good reason: it is providing business and consumers with a vast array of new services. In addition, it is making computing more cost-effective, allowing businesses to do more with less. This is especially relevant to SMEs, which in the past often suffered under the strain of IT costs but can now scale without having to wonder how they can afford to make the...

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).

Ray Ozzie introduced the term Software plus Services about 3 years ago and since then it’s where I have focused all of my time at Microsoft.

Brad Smith, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Microsoft Corporation gave a speech on: “Technology leadership in the 21st century: How cloud computing will change our world”

Views and commentaries from Europe’s ICT & eHealth thought leaders. Filmed during the Friends of Europe Summit in Brussels - December 2009.

Join our partner – EEA – and  help build a community showing how we can IMPACT and CONTRIBUTE to addressing Climate Change!!

Times have changed. "Microsoft has been on a journey itself... doing things on interoperability that were unimaginable just a few years ago..."

With Eye On Earth providing near to real-time information on Water and Air quality, encouraging two-way collaboration with citizens, Environmental Atlas of Europe now extends our digital platform to educate on climate change. (See my previous post )

The European Environment Agency and Microsoft launched their latest project this month - the Environmental Atlas of Europe (Atlas) at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen.

For all the buzz about cloud computing, the potential benefits are real: cost savings as well as the exciting possibilities for small European entrepreneurs to reach global audiences with a minimum of upfront IT costs. Yet the adoption of cloud computing services will depend a great deal on how industry addresses the fundamental interests of users in security, privacy and interoperability, interests about...

We were very proud to announce the grand opening of our Dublin data centre last month. This state of the art facility helps to improve cloud computing capacity and network infrastructure throughout Europe to meet the demand generated from Microsoft’s online, live and cloud services (like Bing, Windows Live and the Azure Services Platform).

We were very proud to announce the grand opening of our Dublin data centre in September 2009.

In the coming five years, only 10% of jobs will be left for those who have no ICT skills, a figure that is especially significant at a time of rising unemployment in Europe and worldwide.

As part of its drive to foster innovation and the knowledge economy in Europe, the Commission has designated 2009 as the Year of Creativity & Innovation.

On 16 June 2009, the King of Belgium, Albert II, visited one of Belgium’s innovation hotspots, the Digital Innovation Valley in Mons. During the visit the King, Walloon Minister for Economy Jean-Claude Marcourt and Mons mayor Elio Di Rupo stopped by the Microsoft Innovation Centre in Mons.

Who would start a business development for start-ups in a slump? That’s precisely when it has to be done, says Microsoft.

Microsoft’s Akhtar Badshah wants to be a disruptive influence

Microsoft’s first European “mega data centre”, which opened recently on the western outskirts of Dublin, uses 50 per cent less energy than a traditional data centre built some three years ago.

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.

Through Eye on Earth, a repository for geographical environmental information created by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Microsoft, Europeans can see and rate the air quality with an online application called AirWatch.

Prof. Jacqueline McGlade at EEA, Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental Strategist at Microsoft Corp and Ludo de Bock, Senior Director EU and NATO, Microsoft Corp. 

With the web providing access to entertainment, banking and even healthcare, EU citizens are increasingly spending more time online. We have grown to rely and trust the internet to help us get on with our daily lives. However, the internet will fail to achieve its full potential if people lose faith in the way we protect people’s privacy and the information we share online. As a global leader,...

Microsoft's Vice President for EU affairs blogs via video on how ICT can stimulate Europe's growth

On June 20th 2012, in the presence of Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt, sustainability legend Gro Harlem Brundtland, IPCC Chair Rajendra K. Pachauri, EU Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard and 150 VIP guests at Rio+20, Eye on Earth has been chosen for the prestigious SUSTAINIA 100 list of solutions. For more information, you can visit:...

On June 20th 2012, in the presence of Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt, sustainability legend Gro Harlem Brundtland, IPCC Chair Rajendra K. Pachauri, EU Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard and 150 VIP guests at Rio+20, Eye on Earth has been chosen for the prestigious SUSTAINIA 100 list of solutions. For more information, you can visit:...

While living in a world of easily available mass market technology, it always strikes me how little we do with it in an interactive way to create broad awareness and collaboration on topics that will determine ours and the next generations future living conditions. 

Atlas, an online portal, uses the intuitive interface of Bing Maps to allow people to view stories about the impact of climate change across Europe.

  Although most people will agree that eHealth is important, it remains a complex landscape which few grasp clearly. 

PDC: Ray Ozzies keynote, highlighting choice, diversity -- and interoperability

What is Microsoft's vision for the future? Take a look.

I just looked up the term Cloud computing on Google News and unless I’m doing something wrong, it appears that the term has turned up in as many news items in the last month as it has in the last year.

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.

Microsoft's Vice President for EU Affairs talks about the role of ICT into driving European growth

We at Microsoft are delighted to see the opening of the first "mega data center" here in Europe. The Dublin Data Center is part of Microsoft’s long-term commitment in the region, and is a major step in realising Microsoft’s Software plus Services strategy.

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. 

Asklepios Hospital: Using Microsoft and Intel technology in modern healthcare

The internet is developing at a tremendous pace as more businesses and peopleworldwide gain access to an ever greater range of online services including online office functionality, video and music downloads and more. 

Viviane Reding, European commissioner for all things hi-tech, is known for telling it like it is. A passionate advocate for new technologies, she has made a name for herself by confronting anything or anyone she thinks hinders European citizens from benefiting from what technologies have to offer.

In February 2008, Microsoft launched the Microsoft Embedded Systems Development Centre (MESDC) in Aachen, Germany. The MESDC was created to foster product development in Europe by addressing the needs of industry partners and customers. Products developed at the MESDC are intended to tackle challenges faced by European customers, but also demonstrate applicability throughout the globe. Bill Dunlap,...

Collaboration is at the heart of the European project. Implementation of numerous European policies depends on cooperation between the Member States. Information technology plays a crucial role in enabling these policy goals to become a reality, and collaboration among the many stakeholders involved presents a need for technologies as well as processes that can work together. 

European Environment Agency and Microsoft Eye on Earth Observatory bring Europaan beach quality into sharp focus