Greece nearly last in cloud computing usage; Cyprus fairs much better

Nearly 50% of enterprises in Cyprus utilise cloud computing technology whilst Greece trails in the third last position of EU States at 20% followed by Bulgaria (13%) and Romania (14%).

According to data published by Eurostat, in 2021, 42% of EU enterprises used cloud computing. This is a 6 percentage point increase since 2020 (36%), and more than double the share in 2016 (19%). In 2021, 98% of EU enterprises employing 10 persons or more had this access.

Cloud computing most commonly used in the Nordic Member States

Although the share of firms with internet access was at very similar high levels across EU Member States, the use of cloud computing varied significantly, with the highest shares reported in Sweden and Finland (both 75%), and the Netherlands and Denmark (both 65%) in 2021.

Cloud computing mainly used for e-mail and storage purposes

Of the enterprises that reported using cloud computing, a vast majority (79%) opted for a cloud solution to host their e-mail systems. About two-thirds used the cloud for storing files (68%) and for office software such as word processors and spreadsheets (61%). More than half used the cloud for security software (59%).

Most importantly, these enterprises also used the cloud to access more advanced end-user software applications, such as financial/accounting (48%), customer relationship management (27%) and enterprise resource planning (24%).

Of the most sophisticated cloud services, over half (59%) of the enterprises using cloud reported using security software applications, 47% hosted the enterprise’s databases in the cloud and one fifth (21%) used computing platform providing a hosted environment for application development, testing or deployment.