One in three (33%) businesses in Luxembourg used cloud computing services in 2021, data from the European statistics agency Eurostat showed.
Essentially, rather than investing in creation and maintenance of own IT (information technology) infrastructure, on-demand hardware and software solutions are available via third party vendors on the internet (the "cloud"). The services offered can be only hardware (for data storage, servers, etc.), softwares, computational power or a combination of services as needed.
These professionally hosted services often provide high reliability compared to in-house IT solutions and can be easily and quickly increased or decreased depending on how business needs change.
In 2021, almost all (98%) enterprises (with ten or more employees and self-employed) across the European Union (EU) had access to internet but only 41% (excluding financial enterprises) on average had bought cloud computing services.
Generally, financial networks and businesses work with propriotery softwares and with their own hardwares to minimise potential risks.
Three out of four businesses (75%) in Sweden and Finland used cloud computing in 2021, followed by the Netherlands (65%) and Denmark (65%) while less than one in five businesses did so in Bulgaria (13%) and Romania (14%).
In Luxembourg, 69% of large enterprises (with 250 or more employees) used cloud computing services in 2021, followed by nearly half (49%) in the case of medium-sized enterprises (50 to 249 employees) and only 29% in the case of small businesses (ten to 49 employees).
Using email as a cloud service was the most common, with 56% of large enterprises using this, as well as 39% of medium-sized enterprises and 23% of small businesses.
After email, 20% of small businesses also used online storage while medium-sized and large enterprises sought office softwares like word processors, spreadsheets, etc. (35% and 50%), respectively.
71% of information and communication enterprises (ten or more employees and self-employed people) had used cloud services - the highest share amongst different sectors. Less than half (46%) of the professional, scientific and technical service activities used cloud computing while accommodation and food and beverage service activities showed the least interest in cloud services, at 13%.
Compared to 2020, usage of cloud services in the construction sector was up 9%, from 15% to 24%.
