Two weeks ago, a scorecard was released naming the top 24 countries in the world for cloud computing. These countries were selected for being the biggest players in the world’s IT market, comprising about 80% of the entire market. They were scored based on the countries’ legislative and private climate for promoting and expanding cloud technologies.

Among the topics that affect a country’s overall “cloud climate,” in the opinion of the BSA, are: its stance on user privacy, free-trade, cybercrime, cybersecurity, and broadband network.

Technology policy counsel at the BSA, Chris Hopfensperger, critiqued the progress made since the release of last year’s global cloud-computing scorecard, calling it “patchy,” but stated that the BSA holds out hope that the cloud-inhibiting legislation that exists today will eventually be overtaken by the good kind of legislation that encourages the expansion of reliable cloud hosting technologies.

Who Scored the Highest Score?

This is the second time that Japan has been awarded the #1 spot, being called the friendliest atmosphere for the progression of cloud technologies in the world. The honor is owing to the country’s dedication to user security and privacy, as well as its stringent posture against cybercrime. In addition, Japan has an increasing rate of broadband acceptance which has contributed to its #1 ranking.

Trailing Japan, also for the second year in a row, was Australia, and the first switch up went to the US, who traded spots with Germany for 3rd place. The decision-makers at the BSA justified the switch in a statement that US cloud providers have made extensive progress in the refinement of US-based cloud technologies. The switch is at this time not owed to improvements in policies made by the government.

And the winners are…

1. Japan

2. Australia

3. United States

4. Germany

5. Singapore

In the span of a year, Singapore jumped from 9th place to 5th after enacting a data privacy law, while Germany’s decline to 4th is owed to what is being called “potentially restrictive privacy laws, protectionist policies.”

Who Scored the Lowest Points?

The five worst environments for cloud computing:

1. South Africa

2. Indonesia

3. Brazil

4. Thailand

5. Vietnam

These five countries scored low in the areas of data and user privacy, free-trade policies (or lack of), data security, and their inability or lack of cooperation in conforming with global cloud standards.

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