Emergent Ethical, Legal, and Professional Issues in Cloud Computing - Literature review Example

? Emergent Ethical, Legal, and Professional Issues in Cloud Computing Introduction Rittinghouse and Ransome state that “cloud computing refers to a self-service internet infrastructure that is on demand that enables the user to access the resources anywhere and anytime”. Cloud computing offers new way of storing, indexing, and the sharing of information. It delivers the software and the hardware over the internet thus ensuring the delivery of information at a high speed. Consequently, cloud system posses a challenge to privacy, confidentiality, and security of information. Mork et al. (2011:13) say that “cloud computing should be distributed and interactively accessible as it provides interoperability between the new and legacy technologies” Cloud computing is technollogy that utilizes the central remote servers and the internet to mantain applications and data. Cloud computing makes it possible for businesses and consumers to use aplications without the accesss and installation of their files using any computer that is connected to the internet. Therefore, it this technology permits for a more efficient computing by centralizing, data storage, and bandwidth. As the potential benefits of cloud computing are many, they are faced with numerous legal, proffesional, and ethical issues. The paper will discuss how cloud computing has impacted on the legal, social and proffesional spheres with regard to storage and transformation of data and inforrmation. The main objective of cloud computing has been to apply the high performance computimg power mostly used in research, health and military facilities to perform trillions of computations in a second, in consumer oriented apllications, and to deliver personalised information. This infrastructure of shared IT consists of a large pool of sytems that are interlinked. This creates legal and ethical isssues within the cloud (Buyya, Broberg, & Goscinski, 2010:23-26). Discussion As highlighted earlier, cloud computing is a type of technology that utilizes the internet and one remote server so as mantain data and different applications. This makes it a very young concept that is yet to be embraced by the global workforce. Cloud computing provides a cost effective IT resource as the cost on demand IT based on the actual customer’s usage. As a result of the rapid growth, numerous companies have been unable to handle their IT requirement even after having a data center that was inhouse. The usage of cloud services helps to enhance the IT capabilities without investing huge amounts in the new datacenters. As a consequence, this tpye of technology aids companies with an efficient way of computing by centralizing processing, memory, bandwidth, and storage. To show that cloud computing has began having mass appeal in the corporate data centers, it has enabled the data centers to operate on a similar internet through the process of enabling the computing process of computing resources to be shared and accessed as virtual resources in scalable and secure manner. Unlike showing proffesionalism, this virtualization is a compromise to security and ethical issues. Ethical issues are not separable with cloud computing. The major areas of concern are resource/stoarage virtualization, scalability and elasticity, usage optimization, ease of usage, fast information sharing delivery, and control, accessibility, and anonymity. The first ethical issue is privacy. The concern with regard to privacy is that the service providers of cloud have total control over the data and communication stored between user and the host company (Racoma, 2012). This is attributed to the fact that service providers have complete over the data the are storing, and as a conseqence, they are responsible for a lot of private information and data. Once this is out of reach of the users, the fear is that it can be utilised for purposes the user doess not desire. As such, of late there have a push by the privacy advocates for a higher level of transparency from the cloud service providers in order to protect the illegal utilization of user information. Another ethical concern is security. According to Kleinrock (2005) asssert that particularly in the realm of business, this is a conern that may be delaying rapid adoption of cloud technology. Some of the security concerns include hackers, data mining or loss of password at the location where the data supposedly being stored. The security issues in cloud computing are classified into two categories. One is security faced by the clients utilising their services, and another one is faced by the cloud vendors. However, the major areas of security in cloud computing include identity management, data protection, application security, physical and personnel identity, availability, business continuity and data recovery, and finally, logs and audit trails. Considerig the fact that data is not being stored in the businesses’ data centers depicts that the security concerns are heightened. The ability to visually and physically inspect the access ports and links of storage devices is the only way to ensure that secirity is not compromised and also the data is not leaked. This has the potential to open the evenues for to issues involving data segregation, data access, and hackers. Moreover, cloud computing makes it possible for organizations and/or people to access other people’s information and personal data, without the that person having the knowledge that their information is being accessed, as such, it could be utilized by oppreeeive governments. Sustainability is another ethical issue. Cloud technology is perceived to an eco-friendly mode of storing and accessing data, but the fact is that there has been no further research regarding this idea. As it stands, there seem not be any less of carbon footprint left by the cloud centres. There have suggestions of utilizing renewable energies sources and small compromises in consumption of energy so as to reduce environmental impact. Though most of the cloud service providers have adopted environmental friendly energy sources, not all have complied with this advocacy. According to (Gillam, 2011) argues that several issues of ethics have emerged from the development of cloud computing. As cloud in growing, it is beginning to dominate some aspects of in the internet. Another problem is that cloud computing allows for quick and easy distribution of intellectual properties of other people, as a result of easy storage and transfer of media in digital form which is against professional ethics. Because of the multinational scope of cloud computing systems, particular legal restrictions specific to countries where cloud computing service providers are doing business need to be considered. The laws that are being proposed could alter the responsibilities of both the cloud computing tenants and providers. As a consequence, cloud computing is faced by legal restrictions due to to its cross national computing. Some of these laws only apply to specific markets, like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) for the health-care industry. When involving the third party, the utilization of infrastructure sourced from a cloud service provider, it is must that you impose all the legal and regulatory requirements that are applicable to your supplier as well as your enterprise. With regard to the contractual issues, the following issues must be highlighted: initial diligence where the before entering into a contract with a cloud’s supplier, In initial due deligence, the following issues must also be addressed in relation to contracts: contract negotiation, implementation, terminatopn and supplier transfer; your enterprise should specifically evaluate its needs and requirements (Rihl, 2012:89-92) Though cloud computing offers numerous benefits, companies that utilise this model must comprehend the potential legal issues that emerge from its use. The key legal issues to consider when evaluating cloud computing are: entering non-negotiable contracts, using suscontractors, negotiating continuity and enforce major clauses, managing the challenge of interoparability, setting of service models, development of transition services, mantainince of privacy and data security, navigating jurisdictional concerns, and understanding limitations on vendor. Some cloud service providers would provide take it or leave contracts. Deployment models and concepts Cloud computing is categorised into three deployment models which include: community cloud, private cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud. Cloud computing that employs hybrid, public or community cloud model has created new dynamics in the relationship between the organization and its information and data that invovle the presence of a third party. This has resulted in the creation of new challenges in comprehending how laws apply to a wide variety of the information management scenarios thus ensuring proffesionalsim in cloud computing. On the contrary, basing on the services it is classified as three archetypical models: Software as a Service (SaaS), SaaS’s security concerns are that users majorly rely on cloud provider’s security. It is the responsibility of the provider to enforce the needs. The provider is to make sure they provide protection to from the underlying infrastructure intruders (Racoma, 2012). Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) has an excellent distribution, load balancing, and cloud monitoring tools. In IaaS with regard to security, the provider has control over cloud’s security. This is due to the fact that applications run on separate virtual machines on the same physical machine (Mork et al., 2011). Platform as a Service (PaaS) security wise, the provider gives a certain level of control to the developers such as the developers can develop their own data encryption methods and authentication systems (Buyya, Yao, Venugopal, Broberg, & Brandic, 2012). Public cloud is typically established where several orgainzations have the same requirements and try to find infrastructure as appliance. Besides, it can be economically attractive as the resources shared and used have been already been exploited in the community. Proffesionaly, in this cloud computing model the service providers make their resources for computing available on the internet for public consumption. The main benefit of using public cloud is that the end users are liberated from performing paricular important tasks on their computing machines that they cannot be avoided (Gillam, 2011). The advantages of using cloud computing are as below. Efficient computing and storage services. It is a self-service model as the resources are available for the customers anywhere and anytime. It is inexpensive as all the virtual resources are covered by the service provider. In those workplaces that are advanced technologically, it empowers the employees in that they can be productive even when outside the office. The hybrid model; has disks which will contain blind and encoded data. Private model advantage is that the risk associated with security is lower as the management of processes and data is maintained inside the organization. The private has been designed to offer similar benefits and features like the public cloud systems, but it eliminates a number of objections to the cloud computing model including security issue, control over customer and enterprise data. The disadvantages of cloud computing include: there compromise of privacy and confidentiality because the data is stored by a third party; security needs to be guaranteed by the third party; and transferability is a problem particularly when migrating from one cloud to another (Cloud Computing Advices, 2012). According to Haiying (2012:23) argues that the most common feature of cloud computing is the ability to supply elastic storage and power thereby regarded as the economic solution to on demand and pay-user scalability. It has tremendous quantities of ubiquitous computational power and an unprecedented number of internet sources and services are utilized daily as normal commodities The paradigm shift to cloud computing most of the times affects many different categories in the computer industries like the internet service providers, software companies, and the hardware manufacturers (Buyya, Broberg, & Goscinski, 2011). Security, confidentiality, and privacy of data have been the three main reasons why the healthcare has taken the slowest route to the adoption of new technologies. Due to the importance of patient’s records, institutions that provide healthcare have taken special care in the handling and storage of medical records. Due to professionalism in cloud computing there has tremendous change in the conduction of activities in the whole world. There has been explosive growth in utilization of applications such as in the biomedical, space exploration and social networking (Buyya et al., 2012:45). Also, there has been extreme scale content generation like the deluge of e-science and e-business data. Moreover, there has been an extraordinary rate of digital content consumption. An exponential growth in the computing capabilities: storage, bandwidth, and virtualization (Ramamurthy & Madurai, 2010). Professionalism has been enhanced in various sectors as result of cloud computing. According to Rouse (2010: 175) found out that utilization of cloud computing in the healthcare institutions has ensured scalability and reliability of medical information which have a significant impact on healthcare institutions. Conclusion Cloud computing new and a promising paradigm that delivers information technology as computing utilities (Kleinrock, 2005). Computing has been transformed into a model comprising of services that have been commoditized and delivered in way that is similar to traditional utilities like water, gas, and electricity. Cloud computing has rapidly become an alternative to the traditional IT infrastructures. This is a new paradigm that aims at delivering hardware and software services over the internet this has created a security problem as criminals are compromising the data and information by taking advantage of the addressed weaknesses in the systems. Therefore, clients must be up to date with security issue of the cloud. Although this migration comes with many benefits, it presents new challenges in the storing, indexing, and the sharing of data. This is because there are ethical, professional, and legal issues that need to be addressed. Especially as the technology advances and improves, it typically outruns the current laws and regulations. As cloud is being readily adopted, the laws are also adjusting to address the concerns of both the users and providers (Rihl, 2012). Most of the ethical issues associated with cloud services are inherently linked to the security issues to the platform. The service providers of cloud computing are incentivised by the profits made by charging the different consumers that access their services. Ultimately, since cloud computations might be important to the core business’ operations of the consumer, it is vital for the consumers to have gurantees for the providers of service delivery. The recent advances in the microprocessor software and technology have resulted in increased ability of the commodity software to run applications within the virtual machines effectively and efficiently. The providers can access to virtual machines themselves as a service, thereby permitting the consumers to install their own applications. This shows the professionalism cloud computing has instilled. Summarily, the major cloud computing privacy concerns include: compelled disclosure to the government, data security and disclosure of breaches, the transfer of, access to, and the retention of data, location of data, and lastly consumer choice and notice. Reference List Buyya, R., Broberg, J., & Goscinski, A. M. (2010). Cloud Computing. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Buyya, R., Broberg, J., & Goscinski, A. M. (2011). Cloud Computing: Principles and Paradigms. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Buyya, R., Yao, C. S., Venugopal, S., Broberg, J., & Brandic, I. (2012). Cloud Computing and Emerging IT Platforms. Vienna: GRIDS Laboratory. Cloud Computing Advices. (2012, April 15). Retrieved April 17, 2013, from Cloud Computing Advantages and Disadvantages: http://cloudcomputingadvices.com/cloud-computing-advantages-disadvantages/ Gillam, N. A. (2011). Cloud Computing: Principles, Sytems, and Applications. New York: Springer. Haiying, R. (2012). Transition to Cloud Computing in Healthcare Information Systems. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division. Massachusets: Massachusets Institute of Technology. Kleinrock, L. (2005). A Vision for the Internet. ST Journal of Research , 2 (1), 4-5. Mork, P., Kimura, E., Reynolds, C., & Lai, F. (2011). Opportunities and Challenges of Cloud Computing to Improve Health Care Services. Journal of Medical Internet Research , 13 (3), 11-167. Racoma, A. (2012, July 10). Retrieved April 2, 2013, from Cloud Computing's Latest Growth Market: Healthcare: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/information-management/cloud-computings- Ramamurthy, B., & Madurai, K. (2010). Cloud Computing: Concepts, Technologies and Business Implications. New Delhi: National Science Foundation. Rihl, P. (2012, November 7). Retrieved April 18, 2013, from http://drihlcomputing.blogspot.com/2012/11/legal-and-ethical-issues-with-cloud.html Rittinghouse, J. W., & Ransome, J. F. (2010). Cloud computing: implementation, management, and security. Texas: CRC Press INC. . Read More