Cloud Computing

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Cloud Computing

Between now and 2020, the amount of digital information created and replicated worldwide will reach a staggering 35 billion gigabytes, once the transition from analogue to digital is achieved. (Source Channel Insider 2011).
A digital boom which now leads companies to seek new alternatives to back up their information assets. It is in this context that Cloud Computing has grown as an innovative and convenient storage solution.  According to the study published in 2011 by the firm Dynamic Markets, 60% of European SMEs already have a  foot in Cloud without basing their entire backup strategy on this one media. Indeed, the transfer of data stored for years on other media would endanger it and would not only waste money but would also be hugely time consuming. In reality, Cloud Computing is usually considered as a complementary medium to a local solution, as this storage method still raises alot of questions:

  • First in terms of security: if the hosts certainly have levels of defence far superior to those of an SME,they are also the targets of hundreds or even thousands of attacks every day.
  • In terms of compliance: asthe same single architecture can host data from dozens of businesses, how canone be sure of the overall security of the infrastructure knowing that thesecurity requirement levels vary from one business to another?
  • In terms of accessibility of data: if the infrastructure of the host is paralyzed by a failure (as was the case last August on the Amazon servers) or in the event of temporary disruption of the Internet access, what procedure will be adopted for recovery? In what timescale? In what order of priority will customer data be restored?
  • In terms of data control: what are the restrictions applying to the transfer, copying or recovery of the data?     
  • In terms of freedom of action: what procedures are to be put in place to terminate a contract with a Cloud host or change a supplier ? What is the cost? What the timescale? How can one be sure of recovering all the data hosted?

In legal terms: if the event of the disappearance ofthe host or provider what recourse is there for an SME? What happens to the data?How is to be recovered? In the event  ofa dispute, what pressure can weigh on an SME facing providers of Cloudsolutions such as Amazon or Microsoft? How and by whom are these disputesarbitrated?