Global cloud readiness continues to improve in every region of the world. Even so, important exceptions exist in certain countries that threaten to slow economic growth in those markets, according to the 2016 BSA Global Cloud Computing Scorecard.
Information technology (IT) is integral to a nation’s economic growth. As a recent IT innovation, cloud computing has added a new dimension to that importance by increasing access to technology that drives economic growth at the national and global levels.
The Scorecard ranks the IT infrastructure and policy environment — or cloud computing readiness — of 24 countries that account for 80 percent of the world’s IT markets. Each country is graded on its strengths and weaknesses in seven key policy areas.
The results show progress in some areas, setbacks in others, and the trends that have emerged since the first Scorecard report in 2012.
Cloud computing democratizes the use of advanced technologies. Cloud computing allows anyone — a start-up, an individual consumer, a government or a small business — to access technology previously available only to large organizations. These services in return have opened the door to unprecedented connectivity, productivity and competitiveness.
Countries that offer a policy environment in which cloud-computing services can flourish gain in productivity and economic growth. The countries with the most favorable policies are those in which the free movement of data, privacy, intellectual property protections, robust deterrence and enforcement of cybercrime are all important priorities. Many countries also recognize that coordination of national cloud- computing policies with those of other nations will facilitate benefits for all countries participating in the global economy.
But countries inhibiting, or failing to support, the use of cloud computing will not keep pace with those embracing the tool.
Significant improvements
This year’s results reveal that almost all countries have made significant improvements in their policy environments since 2013. But the stratification between high-, middle- and lower-achieving country groups has widened, with the middle-ranking countries stagnating even as the high achievers continue to refine their policy environments.
The Scorecard can be analyzed in many different ways, but the clearest measurements lie in the scores. The biggest improvers were South Africa (moving up six places), Canada (moving up five places) and Brazil (up more than 4 points but not changing position).
Notably, three of the lowest-ranked countries — Thailand, Brazil and Vietnam — continue to make significant and consistent gains that are closing their gap with next-higher countries. The world’s major IT markets remained stable with modest gains.
New policies hinder cloud computing
Negative trends emerged as well. For example, while many countries are focused on data protection and cybercrime, few are promoting policies of free trade or harmonization of cloud computing policies. Russia and China, in particular, have imposed new policies that will hinder cloud computing.
Despite an improved IT infrastructure score, China dropped four places to next-to-last in the overall rankings due to gaps in privacy protection and cybercrime laws and poor enforcement of intellectual property rights.
Other countries, such as Korea, may rank among the better-performing markets based on high scores in certain categories but also have adopted restrictive policies that drag down their overall ranking.