In November 2012, the European Commission published a Communication on Cloud Computing intended to ‘unleash the potential of cloud computing in Europe.’ Twenty months later, the Commission has begun to deliver on its key actions set out in the Communication with the publication of its Cloud Service Level Agreement Standardisation Guidelines. Alistair Maughan of Morrison & Foerster examines how helpful these Standardisation Guidelines are to the cloud sector at this point in its development.

The recently issued Cloud Service Level Agreement Standardisation (‘SLA’) Guidelines have their origin back in November 2012. At that time, the European Commission issued a Communication setting out a road map for the future growth of cloud computing in Europe. The Communication was a mix: in parts, an extended advert for the benefits of a digital single market in the EU, a narrative on the benefits of cloud computing, and proposals for structural changes to regulation at the EU level designed to sustain growth in the cloud sector.

Originally published in E-Commerce Law & Policy on September 12, 2014.