In the era of cloud computing it is necessary for nations to actively support this type of technology if they are to foster the industry and ensure that it is attractive for businesses to establish themselves domestically.

However, some countries are better equipped to help businesses adopt cloud-based services than others and a new ranking report from BSA has revealed the best and worst places in the world to use cloud computing.

Twenty four countries were assessed by BSA and PC Advisor reports that this group accounts for almost four fifths of the world’s tech market, which makes them appropriate choices in this instance.
The most cloud-friendly nation as determined by this year’s ranking was Japan, which also held that title in last year’s report. The reasons for this include its excellent broadband infrastructure and impressive legislative cloud that allows it to deal with cyber-crime effectively.

Australia managed to retain its position as the second best cloud country and America crept up to third place, ousting Germany, as a result of impressive commitment to growth in the cloud sector by the Obama administration.

Although the US did receive praise for its efforts in relation to strengthening privacy regulations, the report notes that there are still some legal issues upon which agreement has yet to be met.
The final country in the top five was Singapore, which managed to leap five places to attain its new high ranking.

This leaves the UK outside of this prestigious group and perhaps suggests that more needs to be done in order to convince industry experts that Britain is going to support cloud computing going forward.

The UK came in 7th just behind France mainly because the UK scored badly in ‘promoting free trade’ and ‘cyber-crime’ – the cyber-crime rating is low mainly because there’s the absence of a law that would enable ISPs to take down websites that infringe on copyright.

Investment in the nation’s broadband infrastructure is helping more businesses pick cloud-based services but the level of internet connectivity for consumers is a lottery with large swathes of the countries still ‘not yet planned’ for fiber roll out.

Better regulatory clarity on cloud technology is required for the UK’s long term prospects as one of the world’s leaders in the tech market but there’s currently no political appetite to push through new legislation due to the associated negative PR.

This is a guest post by Tony Brown.