The share of American companies in the Polish cloud market exceeds 70%. – according to the report of the Institute of Digital Transformation and Innovation of the Thinktank Leaders Hub “In pursuit of digital sovereignty: a map of technological dependencies of Poland and Europe”.
The largest share in the Polish cloud market is held by American cloud companies, including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Google (Google Cloud). Their dominant position has been strengthened by recent investments in the creation of cloud regions located in Poland. In the public administration and the segment of state-owned companies, the position of these suppliers is additionally strengthened by cooperation with the National Cloud Operator. The market share of these companies exceeds 70%.
Another important group of companies are European suppliers, including: OVHcloud, T-Systems, Orange, Atos, 1&1(home.pl).
The third group are Polish companies, founded in Poland and controlled by Polish capital. The most important group includes Asseco Poland, Atman (ATM), beyond.pl, Cloud Ferro, Comarch, Operator Chmury Krajowej, Polcom, Talex.
“A large part of Polish and European companies operate in the multi-cloud model, offering solutions based on stacks from various suppliers as well as open technologies,” it was pointed out.
The authors of the document also assessed that the discussion on digital sovereignty in the area of cloud services is currently in the spotlight in Poland due to the market development potential.
“Most of this discussion focuses on the use of cloud services in the public sector. From the perspective of preparing regulations for the public sector, the preparations of the Polish administration should be assessed as generally good,” they wrote.
“Architecture assumptions have been created and the Common State IT Infrastructure program (WIIP)101 is being implemented, Cloud Computing Cybersecurity Standards (SCCO)102 based on risk assessment have been developed, support has been provided for public administration in the process of ordering cloud services in the Cloud Service Provisioning System (ZUCH),” it was explained.
As added, the infrastructure for the operation of the government private cloud is also being developed – the National Data Processing Center (KCPD)103, but it was pointed out that the requirements of digital sovereignty have not been defined as an important starting point for this work, although appropriate importance has been attached to issues related to security, data protection and interoperability.
The authors also estimate that as the discussion on digital sovereignty develops, there will be a need to verify the assumptions, although this will probably be an evolutionary change and not a very profound change.
“From the perspective of risks related to digital sovereignty, most attention was paid to data protection in accordance with European law and business continuity. However, no reference was made to the consequences of the conflict related to the possible use of the provisions of the Cloud Act by the American administration, and no reference was made to economic risks,” it was noted.
“In the current situation, the issue of possible access to data processed in the infrastructure of American companies by the American administration is important for the protection of values and principles, so it requires serious treatment,” it added.
As stated, from the perspective of assessing the scale of damage caused to society in Europe, the issue of possible access of American services and administration to the data of European companies and citizens does not currently cause significant economic consequences.
However, the report indicates that a much more important issue is the economic imbalance and deficit in trade in services, as well as the limitation of development opportunities for European companies that do not achieve the scale needed for appropriate development investments.
“On the one hand, in order to achieve the necessary economies of scale and investment, there is a need for joint cooperation of European countries and support for the creation of cloud providers with the potential to effectively compete with global players, but it is also necessary for existing companies to cooperate and operationally participate in initiatives such as GAIA-X,” it was written.
It was also assessed that from the perspective of increasing interoperability and reducing costs related to vendor lock-in (a situation in which a customer is so dependent on the products, technologies or services of one supplier that changing them becomes difficult, expensive or even impossible), the implementation of the Digital Markets Act, with regulations on the conditions for data transfer and limiting the creation of inseparable technological dependencies between different solution modules, brings great progress.
The report also includes recommendations for the Polish cloud market, which include, among others: increase investments in the area of cybersecurity, strengthen the capabilities and competences of development, implementation and maintenance of software in administration, increase the scope of use of private cloud.
It is also recommended to increase economic balance, which is to be based on ensuring the possibility of shaping economic policy and providing opportunities for the development of the economy and the state based on the use of digital technologies in the manner intended by the state. (PAP Business)
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