ROME (Reuters) – Italy and other European countries need government-controlled cloud services to store sensitive data, the head of Italian defence and electronics firm Leonardo said on Wednesday, calling it “one of the key issues of our future”.
Governments in Europe and elsewhere currently rely on data centres owned by big tech companies such as Amazon, whose cloud-computing unit just launched a sovereign cloud service for European businesses and governments.
“In my opinion, a safe country needs a government cloud, at least for financial, health and defence data,” Chief Executive Roberto Cingolani told a hearing at the defence committee of the Italian lower house of parliament.
“We have a mountain to climb. First of all creating a (national) government cloud. Then understanding that these (national) government clouds need to become European government clouds,” he said.
Cingolani said using privately-owned data centres “may be fine” now, “but if in two generations’ time the grandson of the current owner is a bit mad, we would be in the hands of a madman”.
Leonardo, a listed company controlled by the Italian government, offers cloud services to the Italian state through a consortium including Telecom Italia, Italian state lender CDP and state-owned IT firm Sogei.
Cingolani said in July he wants his company to focus more on cybersecurity, given its growing importance for the defence sector. He is expected to unveil a strategy to this end as he presents Leonardo’s new industrial plan next March.
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini; Editing by Mike Harrison)
