The revelations about the monitoring of phone calls, emails and Internet traffic by the National Security Agency’s Prism program will cost U.S. cloud suppliers either $ 35 billion, $ 45 billion, or maybe not so much, depending on how you interpret recent data on the continued use of hosting services, according to analysts looking at the aftermath of the Edward Snowden leaks.
The $ 35 billion figure springs from a recent survey by the Cloud Security Alliance, which found that 56% of 500 respondents said the disclosures by the fugitive NSA systems administrator would cause them to lose non-U.S. business. Canada, plus Germany, France and other European countries, have rules that require companies to guarantee the privacy of data that originates within their borders. Most comply by keeping the data on storage inside its country of origin.
Daniel Castro, an analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Institute, a technology think tank, used that figure to project that U.S. cloud service suppliers are likely to lose $ 22 billion to $ 35 billion in business to European rivals over the next three years. The rivalry is already well entrenched, with European governments investing in future competitors of U.S. companies.