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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Cloudscape III session - tackling legal, policy & ethical issues around cloud computing


The event continues today, beginning with a session and roundtable dedicated to legal, policy and ethical issues, chaired by Vincent Franceschini of Hitachi Data Systems.

Luciano Florid of the University of Hertfordshire launched the session with a more philosophical look at cloud computing, covering the ethical and social impact of clouds. The theme of this talk really showed the shift between the material world of ownership, to a variation much more distributed and virtual. The “digital divide” is quickly changing, affecting data control, responsibility, accountability and privacy.

This shift was also looked at through a legal perspective by Paolo Balboni of the European Privacy Association. While the outsourcing models of old showed a clear chain of actors from provided service to user, we now see a much more complex cloud computing mapping, with providers outsourcing to other public infrastructures, themselves. It’s a complex environment that requires efficiency, interoperability, data security and improvement in legal and regulatory compliance.

This discussion will no doubt carry over to the upcoming session focused on cloud security challenges, where data protection and trust will pop up again often I imagine.

Don’t forget that you can tune in to the SIENA Channel (www.sienainitiative.eu) for live streaming of the talks, as well as a repository of speakers presentations and event material.

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