Every Silver Lining Has A Cloud
There is a lot of discussion - and dare I say it, hot air - around the theme of Cloud Computing.
Cloud infrastructures around the world are already built using a range of standards and protocols - the problems arise when trying to get them to play nicely together. As cloud service providers themselves buy-in and sub-contract parts of their hosting needs, it is increasingly difficult for the service consumer - let alone the end-user - to have a clear picture of how and where their data is managed.
Public policy makers increasingly are looking towards standards - and the communities that develop them - in order to anchor policy pronouncements in tangible and tractable commitments. As John Sabo, of CA Technologies, stated recently "It’s one thing to pass a law to say that if you’re a citizen of country X that your data needs to be protected in a certain way. It’s another thing if a system or a very complex system of systems can deliver that. That’s where the worlds of policy and standards come together."
However, responses to the need for policy and standards have usually been driven by national considerations and policy. The phenomenon is however, by its nature, transnational and needs such a response to be effective.