Digital adoption During Covid-19: A Focus on Basic Functionality, Not Advanced Cloud Services

The Covid-19 pandemic compelled companies to quickly adopt digital solutions to maintain operations during lockdowns. This raises an important question: how significant was the pandemic in driving digital adoption? Within my research I investigate how companies across Europe invested in cloud computing during this period.

Cloud computing plays a vital role in facilitating remote working.  At a basic level, cloud computing enables employees to access their emails and internal systems from anywhere, allowing for seamless communication and collaboration. On a more advanced level, cloud computing offers services such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS), which provide companies with the necessary resources to develop, deploy, and manage applications without the need for extensive on-premises hardware. These advanced services allow businesses to scale their operations more efficiently and respond quickly to changing demands.

To understand how companies leveraged cloud computing during the pandemic, we analysed datasets published by Eurostat. I compared cloud computing usage across 22 European countries and 27 industries at three key time points: 2018 (pre-Covid), 2020 (when Covid-19 first emerged), and 2021 (during the ongoing pandemic).

In this analysis, I measured technology adoption by examining the increased use of remote access to two basic services: the email system and ICT systems beyond email (Figure 1). I also assessed the adoption of cloud computing services, distinguishing between low, high, and sophisticated CC offerings (Figure 2).

The findings of this research indicate a significant increase in the adoption of essential digital tools across European countries and industries, particularly in the use of remote access to email and basic cloud computing services. The Covid-19 pandemic had a positive impact on the number of enterprises providing more employees with remote access to their email systems. However, there is no clear evidence that the pandemic spurred the adoption of more advanced or sophisticated cloud computing services.

This suggests that while companies made strides in digital transformation during the pandemic, there remains an opportunity for further investment in more complex cloud solutions to fully leverage the benefits of cloud computing.

Additional Resources

Garcia-Lazaro, A. (2023). Digital Adoption in Times of Crisis: A Study for the European Countries. In: Sainz, J., Sanz, I. (eds) Addressing Inequities in Modern Educational Assessment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45802-6_10.

Author’s profile

Dr Aida Garcia Lazaro is an economist and researcher with the Made Smarter Innovation: Centre for People-led Digitalisation based within the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath. Aida's research is concentrated on the impact of digitalisation, technological change on labour market opportunities, skills gaps in the UK.

If you would like further information on this research please email: p-ld@bath.ac.uk