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datacentres, professional Cloud service providers offer significantly higher
technical security levels than can usually be achieved in a local datacentre.
As a Cloud customer, with each "seat" you purchase, you also acquire your
own slice of this high level of safety. However, in contrast to a flight
passenger, as a Cloud‐user, you also carry a part of the responsibility
yourself. As the owner of the data, you yourself are also subject to statutory
obligations, which you must be careful to comply with prior to signing a
contract with a Cloud service provider. Whilst the Cloud can certainly offer
the latest standards of technical security, it is a special challenge to comply
with the legal and data protection requirements. Today, these are not yet
standardised internationally, which poses a particular challenge in view of
the predominantly US‐based global Cloud service providers. The European
legislators are working intensively to harmonise precisely these data
protection regulations.
As with cars or planes, independent testing agencies and standards are also
needed to confirm that a Cloud provider complies with technical and data
protection standards. This is, for example, what the EuroCloud Star Audit
Certificate does, which aids the selection process before a purchase and
confirms the trustworthiness of a Cloud service vendor.
Back to the beginning
It would be a great loss to turn down a major client by not taking the trip to
Milan due to security concerns, the result would be to forgo a large job.
Companies should also take care that concerns about risks do not prevent
them from profiting from the benefits of Cloud computing. At worst, the
enormous innovative strength of the Cloud will pass your organisation by,
quickly making it uncompetitive.
When it comes to Cloud computing, a balance is needed to avoid the
extremes of blind trust and naivety, by acting responsibly and exercising an
equal amount of caution to a Cloud adoption decision as you would to
owning and driving a car. This involves your organisation taking the
necessary risk assessments; the economy, competitiveness and innovation
etc. to ensure your company’s data will travel as safely as you would
personally.
1.1.1
Can the Cloud be avoided?
Do you remember the days of the first cell phones? Business people carrying
small, heavy boxes with them to ensure that they could keep in touch with
their companies. Or perhaps a few years later, as the little boxes had shrunk
