Up in the Cloud
The word “Cloud” is everywhere such as when you use your mobile phone, you might have come across “cloud storage” that may sound like you can upload your data up in the sky. However, what exactly is the “Cloud Computing”?
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) define Cloud Computing as;
“Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models.”
In other words, Cloud Computing can be described as using other people’s servers for running applications for your own organisation remotely. There are three main types of these services which are; Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) such as Amazon Elastic Computer Cloud, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) such as Azure, and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) such as Dropbox.
Cloud Computing deployment models can be private or public, or hybrid. A public cloud offers their services to anyone on the Internet for example Amazon Web Provider is the public cloud provider. Whilst, customer has sole use of server and accessed through private network on a private cloud. Moreover, a hybrid cloud is a mixture of the private cloud and public which data can move between these two.
Some Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing
Pros
- Accessibility: You can access to your data in the cloud from anywhere with an Internet connection.
- Cost: With fixed fee charges, you might be able to control more of your operating costs and also reduced maintenance costs.
- Scalability: You can manage to pay only for what you required.
Cons
- Data privacy and security: This would be the main concern for everyone especially with the sensitive information.
- Data control: It might be challenging if your existing system does not compatible with the cloud computing service provider.
- Provider: What if the provider fails to fulfill their duties or go out of business.
Cloud Computing, Data Protection and GDPR
Data privacy and security would be an important concern because how could you know what if the provider wrongly use your data, or even worse if other persons like hackers can access to your data. Therefore, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the significant piece of privacy legislation in Europe. Three main obligations for the provider under GDPR are as follows;
Data Sovereignty: Under EU law, all data stored on citizens must be either stored in EU or within a jurisdiction that has similar standards of protection.
Data control and visibility: Data can only be used for the specific purpose and must be processed with the appropriate security of the personal data.
Privacy by design and security: Controllers and processors must take appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate.
So, you should always ensure that your provider meets with these requirements.