So-called ‘cloud computing’ is accessing computing resources hosted by third parties on the internet instead of building your own IT infrastructure. As cloud services are provided online, enterprises must have internet access to be able to use them. In 2021, 98% of EU enterprises employing 10 persons or more had this access.
In 2021, 42% of EU enterprises used cloud computing. This is a 6 percentage point (pp) increase since 2020 (36%), and more than double the share in 2016 (19%).
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.
At the opposite end of the scale, cloud computing services were used by fewer than one in five enterprises in Bulgaria (13%) and Romania (14%).
Latvia's equivalent figure was 29%, though the figure has steadily risen since 2016 when it was a lowly 8%. Lithuania's figure was 34% and Estonia's was considerably higher at 58%.
