The Mission Critical Cloud

21 March, Brussels will host the European Cloud Computing Conference. Title is not so interesting, but the speakers are. European parliament, European commission and some elephants like oracle, tsystems and dell.

The most interesting part is the contribution and the enthusiasm from the European Committee. Mainly two reasons are driving this enthisiasm. A bigger global voice next to the US centric position of the big cloud providers and the aim for standardization in the cloud.

Next to that the EU believes that cloud in its biggest definition will change the economy as we know it. And that is a very interesting statement. Internet already changed society big time. Those who have information and those who dont have information.
Economy wise we see opportunities all over the place. Look at etsy, look at start ups like spanx. From 0 to hero in only a few months. And that worldwide. Look at the struggle the old economy has with internet. Movies, music, books, television. Totally different concepts are being born every day to earn money. Old concepts just dont work.

But back to the Conference. One of the sessions will explore the issues that Cloud Computing raises with regards to data security, privacy and liability, both within the EU and globally. What clarification on data ownership and on responsibility over data loss or data leakage is needed? To what extent do current laws governing international data transfers need to be updated to take into account the new era of cloud computing? How far does Commissioner Reding’s review of the EU data protection directive go in doing this? Will a well-defined Cloud legislation guaranteeing data protection be enough to overcome concerns over security and to gain the confidence of potential users? How can regulators balance the need to safeguard data with the important goal of ensuring the uptake of the Cloud is not jeopardized? To what extent can legal and regulatory solutions be co-ordinated at a global level, and how can European legislation be integrated with other data laws, for example the US Patriot Act? Where legal conflicts remain when dealing with third countries, how can it be ascertained where the precedence lies? To what extent can the creation of EU based cloud computer centres be used to help simplify the legislative maze? (source)

For Schuberg Philis this will be very important. We know the rules of the game. We know Sas70, basel II, III, Remit, IAS, ISO27001, Cobit, etc.. But that could very well be the bare minimum. Economy and standards are changing. Also on a security level. Lets see if we can use our experience to not only be a first mover in this new economy. But to define the rules of the game as well.