The use of cloud computing in Finland and around the world

According to Statistics Finland, 75% of Finnish companies use paid cloud services. Cloud services are most widely used in scientific and technical sectors and the information and communications sectors, in which 95% of enterprises use them. Cloud services are least widely used in the retail sector, where just 44% of operators use them.

Cloud services are most widely used among large enterprises with more than 100 employees – 92% of such businesses have deployed cloud environments.

Use of paid cloud service in Finnish companies, %

Statistics Finland also examined how cloud services are used. The cloud services most commonly used in companies with at least 10 employees are services for file storage, as well as various office applications, including email. Enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management applications are often used in cloud environments.

The most popular use cases of the cloud services in Finnish companies, %

Eurostat: The use of cloud services among enterprises is still not mainstream in the EU

Cloud services are much more widely used in Finland than in other EU countries: according to Eurostat’s data, the 75% cloud service utilisation rate recorded in Finland is the highest in Europe. Cloud services are used by 70% of companies in Sweden, 67% in Denmark, and 64% in Norway.

The average of EU countries is much lower, at 36%. The largest growth in the use of cloud services has taken place in Italy, where the rate rose from 23% in 2018 to 59% in 2020.

Elsewhere in Europe, cloud environments are also most commonly used for storing files and accessing office applications. 24% of enterprises using the cloud use it as a computing resource, and 27% use it for CRM applications. However, 45% use cloud services for accounting and enterprise resource planning applications. (Source: Eurostat)

Drivers and obstacles to cloud uptake

According to the State of the Cloud Report conducted by Flexera in 2021, companies that have already switched to cloud services measure their success, e.g. cost efficiency/savings (76%), delivery speed of products/services (66%) and cost avoidance (53%). 45% of respondents said that moving to the cloud has increased company’s speed of innovation.

There are also challenges in the transition to cloud environments. The top challenges are security (81% of respondents), managing cloud spend (79%) and 75 percent each for governance, lack of resources/expertise and compliance. (Source: Flexera 2021 State of the Cloud Report)