As with any outsourced service, such as the Cloud, security is paramount. The security objectives of an organization are a key factor for decisions about outsourcing information technology services and, in particular, for decisions about transitioning organizational data, applications, and other resources to a Cloud computing environment. (more…)

The legal environment for Cloud computing is in catch-up mode relative to the pace of Cloud adoption. Many data privacy laws pre-date Cloud computing capability. Cloud computing now possess new legal dimensions and dynamics that have not yet been fully tested, although moving quickly to adopt consensus on standards, responsibilities, liabilities and universality. It is new territory for legal considerations for both Cloud provider and client. One thing that remains constant that impacts on legal considerations is the threat landscape constantly changes and evolves and both parties require to work together to build the jurisprudence. (more…)

Cloud computing is an emerging IT development, deployment and delivery model, enabling real-time delivery of products, services and solutions (i.e., enabling Cloud services) over the Internet. The Cloud is a virtualization of resources that maintains and manages itself. There are of course people resources to keep hardware, operation systems and networking in proper order. (more…)

The overarching concept of delivering computing resources through a global network was rooted in the sixties. The idea of an “intergalactic computer network” was introduced by J.C.R. Licklider, who was responsible for enabling the development of ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) in 1969.” His vision was for everyone on the globe to be interconnected and accessing programs and data at any site, from anywhere”, explained Margaret Lewis, product marketing director at AMD. “It is a vision that sounds a lot like what we are calling Cloud computing.” Other experts attribute the Cloud concept to computer scientist John McCarthy who proposed the idea of computation being delivered as a public utility, similar to the service bureaus which date back to the sixties. (more…)