In one of my earlier blog post, I discussed issues regarding data privacy and different jurisdictions in the cloud. Due to the very nature of cloud computing, there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding these issues and dissimilar legislation increases the challenges at hand. The European Union, for example, has certain strict regulations that forbids the transfer of personal data out of its jurisdiction which is considered by some to hamper the cloud computing evolution in EU - especially when it's compared to what's happening in the US, as discussed in an interesting article in the New York Times:
“There are restrictions on cloud computing in Europe,” said Bob Lindsay, privacy director in Europe for Hewlett-Packard, which makes servers and other equipment for cloud data centers. “This isn’t killing the business, but it is slowing its evolution, compared with what is taking place in the United States.”
Whether this will adversely affect Europe's competitive position when it comes to cloud services remains to be seen - but it seems possible. As US authorities have a more "hands-off" position when it comes to data transfer and usage, companies are more agile when it comes to deploy cloud services and migrate processes to the cloud. More from the NYT article:
Cloud computing, which allows companies to tap enormous computing power via the Internet without having to invest in the infrastructure themselves, has grown rapidly in the United States under a legal system that permits the sale and transfer of many forms of private data.
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