Europe's Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, has released a long-awaited Communication entitled, "Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe." The paper outlines a series of actions designed to drive European businesses and the public sector into the cloud. The goal is to create 2.5 million...

Trade officials from the United States and eight other Pacific Rim countries are meeting this week in Leesburg, Va., for the 14th negotiating round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an agreement noteworthy for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that it constitutes the first one of its...

When Congress created the Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) in 2008, cloud computing was unfamiliar to most people outside of the IT industry. Today, it is one of the fastest-growing segments of the information economy. In the interim, recognizing the potential to capitalize on efficiencies...

With cloud computing, the opportunity is clear. Public IT cloud revenue will grow to more than $70 billion by 2015. Even more significant, innovation enabled by the cloud will generate more than a trillion dollars in revenue over the next few years according to one estimate, and...

One of the most striking findings in the global survey data we are releasing this week is the fact that 42 percent of the people who use paid cloud services for business say they share their log-in credentials inside their organizations. This points to a worrisome new avenue...

If you live in a developing economy and use a computer, then, likely as not, you also use cloud computing services at least some of the time for email, word processing, document or photo storage, or other needs -- although you might not understand those services to be "cloud computing."

Cybersecurity has justifiably become a front-burner policy concern for governments around the world. But what happens when security regulations are effectively used to bolster the prospects of local firms at the expense of foreign competitors?

We are starting to find out, especially in emerging markets, where many governments have...

The point of having standards is to create a consistent set of rules, or models, for all parties to follow. That point seems to be lost, though, on governments in many emerging markets. When it comes to technology, countries like China and India are trying to create their own patchwork...

Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers sent a letter to the Indian government, expressing alarm at "unprecedented interference" in the procurement processes of government and commercial entities in India. The letter stated, in part, that "This policy will undermine investor confidence and would be inconsistent...

This week BSA released "Lockout," a report that shows how a new wave of IT-focused trade barriers threaten to keep global companies out of critical emerging markets -- and how the actions of big markets...

We have reached a pivotal new phase in the information technology revolution. The biggest centers of growth for IT products and services are no longer established powers like the United States and Europe, but...

What if 57 percent of consumers admitted they shoplift? That's how many of the world's computer users say they pirate software, according to the ninth edition of the BSA Global Software Piracy Study.

Some say they do it all or most of the time. Some say they...

The English author H.G. Wells is thought to have said, "Human history is, in essence, the history of ideas." How right he was, considering the visionary innovators who have transformed the world with great ideas. Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Johann Gutenberg, plus more modern day icons such as Steve Jobs...

If there was any doubt, a new report from the Commerce Department makes it abundantly clear that intellectual property is the secret sauce in the US economy, officially contributing roughly one-third of the country's GDP and more than a quarter of its employment. If you are keeping score, that comes...

Cloud computing is the fastest-growing and most exciting new sector in the software and computing industries. IDC estimates that by 2015 revenue from public IT cloud services...

Software piracy rates are highest in the developing world, where per capita incomes are lowest. For some observers, this correlation is evidence of causation. Software costs too much for people in emerging economies to afford, the argument goes; that's why they steal it. Charge less, and...

In one of the most significant steps on data privacy in recent years, the European Commission is set tomorrow to put forward a comprehensive plan to reform the EU's data protection rules. As a starting point in this long process, the Commission should be lauded for tackling one of the...

When House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith and his bipartisan cosponsors last month introduced the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), I said in a press statement that the bill would have to balance key innovation, privacy and security considerations with the need to thwart the threat rogue websites pose...

"Technology has transformational power," the Government of India declares in its 2011 National Policy on Information Technology. "It is a great leveler of opportunity within and across economies."

This observation is undeniably true, and India is well on its way to achieving its aspiration of harnessing technology innovation...

For countries seeking to develop globally competitive information technology sectors, the secret to success isn't much of a secret: You need a healthy business environment, first-rate IT infrastructure, dynamic human capital, robust research and development, a strong legal environment, and adequate public support for industry development.