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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 region's 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 CEO Larry Ellison describes it being like an electricity network.

"Consumers don't have to get bogged down with the complexity of computing and they don't have to make a huge capital investment, they just plug in and run their applications," the founder of the world's 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 region's gross domestic product (GDP) by 583 billion euros between 2015 and 2020 and create millions of new jobs.

EMC is one of the world's largest data providers and Howard Elias, president and COO of the company's cloud computing branch told CNBC, new strategy and regulations can only be positive for the industry.

"Anything that governments and the EU can do to clarify and simplify is always a good thing," he told CNBC "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 doesn't drift overseas to the U.S.

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

"I'm 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 EU's 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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EU Eyes Cloud Computing to Kick Start Economy