Relevance of Current UK IT Law as Applied to Cloud Computing - Literature review Example

Information technology law in the United Kingdom is divided into several topics, which affect different stakeholders in different ways. The act was also made to prevent computer crimes and ensure security practices in all the usage of technology. A swift increase in the use of PC and the internet has seen the rise of new forms of crimes like publishing sexually overt materials in electronic type, video voyeurism and violation of privacy and leak of information by agents, and e-commerce frauds like impersonation commonly known as phishing, identity stealing and unpleasant posts through the use of communication services.

Cloud computing can be defined as the use of cloud technology to store and access data that is stored in a virtual space. Cloud computing can be divided into several forms that serve better to explain the whole idea; they include the following:
1. SaaS
Through the service, the providers install common software, which enables customers to download intended materials without necessarily installing personal copies of the software and the charges are inclusive of the material cost (software as a service). This tool, therefore, maintains lower costs than other conventional hosting of cloud computing.
2 Utility computing

The idea behind this type of computing is not new, but this type of cloud computing is getting new life from several companies with an online presence that offers storage space and virtual servers that IT can be accessed anytime. Other stakeholders offer solutions that help IT create virtual data enters from commodity servers, such as 3Tera's Aplitic and Cohesive Flexible Technologies' Elastic Server on Demand, Liquid Computing LiquidQ offers similar capabilities, enabling IT to stitch together memory, I/O, storage
Internet integration
Cloud computing provides a whole range of advantages in the way organizations conduct their business and target potential consumers. It is a welcome to small businesses especially to avoid the extra high costs that are associated with setting up IT infrastructure. On the other hand, as virtualization permeates the enterprise, the idea of loosely coupled services running on a nimble, scalable network should eventually make every venture a node in the cloud; it's a long-running trend with a far-out horizon, but among big megatrends, cloud computing is the most difficult one to argue with in the long term.

Addition
The increase in awareness of consumer products easily accessible through online means is changing the business environment within the United Kingdom just as is the case with all other parts of the globe. For instance, consumers are increasingly adopting the purchase of software and such entertainment products as music as well as movies from online supplies by a third party which represents a form of cloud computing. However, as Brad gate finds in a report concerning the consumer rights on digital products, the increased awareness and use of cloud computing places the consumer at a point of uncertainty about the legal framework within the UK today. This is because unlike the case with other physical products where the consumers are well aware of personal rights, the law in the UK is not certain on digital consumer rights. Therefore according to this report is one shortcoming that is notable within the legal framework governing cloud computing in the UK (Brad gate, 2010, p. 1-3).

Trade on IP licenses is equally an important source of government revenues and thus increases the accommodation of the emerging business venture there. However, according to a report by Hargreaves, there is a critical shortcoming that the current law in the UK in regard to IP where the author reasons that the legal framework falls far from the expectation of the cloud computing users, especially in the aspect of copyrights. Copyright interests of the creative industries within the UK should be held with paramount importance as the industry fetches lots of income for the country. However, the poor legal framework is blamed for costing the participants as well as the government of much revenue. Efficient copyright as well as effective enforcement of the law regarding digital media is pointed out to be a remedy for improving cloud computing within the United Kingdom (Hargreaves, 2011, p. 1-5).

Nevertheless, the UK is credited with many other improved legal frameworks regarding cloud computing and is thus not the worst hit globally in matters of the poor legal framework on cloud computing. For instance, in 1998, the act on data protection (DPA) was passed and has been effective in overseeing the implementation of data protection directives. UK information commissioner’s office guides on matters of data protection compliance and keeps a record of data controllers besides investigating as well as sanctioning the breaches to the DPA. Moreover, under the FSMA (Financial Services and Markets Act 2000), the ‘financial service authority is in a position to enforce data regulation and identify bleaches. However, FSMA has special attention to the financial service provided by the financial institutions concerning customer information and personal data security (Liston, 2012, p. 11-12). This shows that the UK has made commendable steps in the legal framework concerning cloud computing.

This, therefore, confirms that despite the great steps that have been taken in the UK to manage cloud computing through legislation, there are still notable shortcomings as pointed out in the above literature review and which if improved would increase the performance of the legal framework in the management of cloud computing. Read More