* * *  1 Introduction Ladies and gentlemen, Friends and colleagues, In 1974, Reinhard Mey, one of Germany’s best-known singer-songwriters, released one of his biggest hits, “Über den Wol​ken”, meaning “Above the clouds”. In the song, the protagonist stands on an airfield watching a plane take off. He imagines that the sky beyond the clouds must be where freedom can be found.
In the chorus he sings: “Above the clouds, freedom must be boundless.” Nowadays one could be tempted to change the words of the chorus to: “Inside the cloud, freedom is boundless.” Perhaps it is a little too sketchy to draw a parallel between the freedom above the clouds and the opportunities that come with cloud technologies.