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With a four-year debt crisis and recession affecting many of its member countries, the European Union (EU) is turning to cloud computing to create 2.5 million new jobs and boost the regions economy.

Cloud computing is where files are stored in massive data centers rather than on office servers and computer programs and functions run via the Internet. Oracle

Consumers dont have to get bogged down with the complexity of computing and they dont have to make a huge capital investment, they just plug in and run their applications, the founder of the worlds largest database software company told CNBC Tuesday.

It may not be a new concept but it certainly caught the eye of the European Commission which says the industry could increase the regions gross domestic product (GDP) by 583 billion euros ($760 billion) between 2015 and 2020 and create millions of new jobs.

EMC

Anything that governments and the EU can do to clarify and simplify is always a good thing, he said. Any time you have a framework, that can only foster more investment.

The EU wants to focus on four key aims to help cloud computing realize its full potential. They want users to be able to easily move providers, a certification for trustworthy companies, contracts that would simplify regulations, and clear communication between providers and the public sector, so work doesnt drift overseas to the U.S.

Katherine Thompson, analyst at Edison Investment Research, is not entirely convinced, however.

Im not sure I strictly agree that it will give such a boost to the economy, as the move to the cloud is often a shift from one form of expenditure to another, as opposed to incremental spend, and in many cases will be deflationary, she told CNBC. The EUs thinking behind this is that it would help create new types of companies and new business models start I do agree with this myself, but this is already happening without EU involvement.

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Euro Zone Eyes Cloud Computing to Kick Start Economy