The meeting "Data in the clouds" took place in Rome: a comparison between industry, politics and academia on the future of the Italian system in digital innovation, also in light of international changes
The first National Conference on the Italian cloud took place on Wednesday 14 May at Palazzo Ripetta in Rome, organized by the Italia Cloud Consortium, an organization that brings together Italian companies active in the cloud computing supply chain, such as ISVs, MSPs, System Integrators, Software Houses and telcos.
The event brought together Italian companies, political representatives and strategic stakeholders for a discussion on how to build a cohesive national ecosystem, capable of enhancing skills, promoting digital independence and sovereignty and strengthening the country's competitiveness. The stimulus of the meeting is the belief, rooted in the very mission of the Consortium, that structured cooperation between politics, industry, academia and R&D centers is needed to face geopolitical, technological and market challenges together. And that, today more than ever, innovation and national interest can and must go together.
Participating as speakers were: Antonio Baldassarra di Seeweb, Roberto Bondavalli by CloudFire, Gianluca Bottaro by Netalia, Vincenzo Cammarata by Lutech, Alessio Cecchi by Qboxmail, Lucia Fioravanti del National Strategic Pole, the members of Chamber of Deputies, Honorable Marco Furfaro and Alberto Pandolfo, Vincenzo Giannattasio Dell'Isola di Dedalus Italy, Paola Girdinio by START 4.0, Maurizio Goretti by Namex, Dario Lucatti by Italtel, Vincenzo Pinto by Almaviva, Arturo Possidente of Express, Laura Rovizzi by Open Gate Italia.
In the opening speech, the President of the Consortium and CEO of Netalia Michele Zunino reiterated the requests and objectives of the action to promote the national cloud carried out by the Consortium. The conclusions are summarized in the open letter sent at the same time to the President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic Meloni, to Ministers Bernini, Urso, Zangrillo, to Undersecretary Butti and to the entire Italian Parliament.
"Whoever controls the cloud manages to control the markets, the people and the institutions themselves. All or almost all network activities and the industrial and productive actions of the innovation chains are transferred to the cloud. If control of the cloud remains in the hands of foreign subjects, the country sees its national interests undermined" stated Zunino.
Zunino recalled how the cloud is a key section in digital development, but also a sector in which, in the absence of new guidelines from the government, Italy risks finding itself in a deficit of assets, skills and national business initiatives, all elements that hinder the growth of the country in that unanimously desired context of independence and national sovereignty.
The current phase of de-globalization, together with growing international tensions and the expansion of regional conflicts in every part of the world, confirm that digital technologies and data control represent crucial areas of conflict. The most visible digital technologies (AI, robotics, remote controls, processing and valorisation of data flows) are all operations that are managed in the cloud.
Today in Italy there is enthusiasm regarding huge investments by multinationals in data centers which will not bring to the country any territorial power of control (cloud functions managed with systems that operate remotely), nor real resources (the implementation is the result of foreign-to-foreign transactions), nor employment or skills (they all reside in control centers based abroad). In the meantime, dozens and dozens of Italian SMEs operating in the cloud, together with local software vendors and system integrators, act alone, without a national policy that enhances entrepreneurial resources and national skills.
“The Italia Cloud Consortium wants to launch a rallying call,” reiterates Zunino. "We fear that the persistence of this situation could lead to a definitive impoverishment of our capacity for innovation at a national level and risks handing over, in much less than a decade, the country's destinies into the hands of a few multinationals. We can still act to reverse the trend and the current international context, also based on an accentuation of the role of national states within the EU, helps us to define and manage choices that go against the trend of the recent past. But there isn't much time left."
The Italia Cloud Consortium must and wants to grow, to have an increasingly greater say in the political and regulatory choices that regulate the sector: Italian digital companies are invited to give their contribution of ideas, experiences and possible synergies.
