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The Golden Age Of The Cloud
This article looks at a new technology which is taking the business and IT worlds by storm: “cloud computing”. As this new industry has a lot of clients with a lot of money, it is not particularly surprising that commercial lawyers have become acutely sensitive to the cloud clients’ needs, concerns and expectations.
Why get involved in the cloud?
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have been fast to appreciate that the internet offers a golden opportunity for them, and equally lawyers have been quick to realize that they can offer specialist advice to the benefit of SMEs. Businesses remain fascinated by ‘cloud computing’.
But what is cloud computing? In the simplest of terms, it is IT-as-a-Service. Your company has access to its data and software over the internet (which in most IT diagrams is shown as a cloud). This, like many new technologies, it has its own set of benefits and challenges.
Benefits
Cloud computing fans claim five key benefits, and these contribute to the overall competitive advantage of the business.
- Cheap: your IT provider will host services for multiple companies; sharing complex infrastructure is argued to be cost-efficient, and you pay only for what you actually use. This is very attractive to SMEs.
- Quick: The most basic cloud services work ‘out of the box’ – it’s perfect for start-ups, especially in the current harsh economic client.
- Up-to-date: Most providers constantly update their software offering, adding new features as and when they become available.
- Scaleable: If your business is growing fast or has seasonal spikes, you can go large quickly because cloud systems are built to cope with sharp increases in workload.
- Mobile: Cloud services are designed to be used from a distance, so if you have a mobile workforce, your staff will have access to most of your systems on the go.
Market uptake
A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), was published shortly before Christmas last year. Widespread adoption of cloud computing could give the top five EU economies a 763bn-euro (£645bn; $1tn) boost over five years; the CEBR also said it could also create 2.4m jobs. The US analysts Gartner estimates that, over the course of the next five years, businesses will spend $112 billion cumulatively on Cloud Computing.
Potential issues which businesses and lawyers can address
Cloud computing is not without potential problems.
- Usability is an important issue. Some people, firmly wedded to “their” software, whether it’s Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook, are reluctant to switch to plainer online applications.
- Perhaps the greatest concerns that customers face when using a cloud computing solution are those relating to security and privacy. In a traditional commercial relationship, providers will typically split up the servers for a specific customer, and a customer may even be able to impose certain physical and logical security requirements. This may not be possible once data are transferred to the cloud.
- To the extent that personal information is stored in the cloud, customers must also consider compliance with applicable laws governing the privacy and security of personally identifiable information.
Who are the providers?
Cloud computing is at an early stage, with a small group of large providers delivering a slew of cloud-based services, from full-blown applications to storage services to spam filtering. Currently, Amazon, Google and Microsoft are key suppliers of cloud services.
Further reading
An interested reader is strongly recommended to go to the ‘cloud computing’ page of Taylor Wessing LLP. Taylor Wessing LLP is one of several firms with a specialist interest in the international commercial law of cloud computing:
http://www.taylorwessing.com/download/cloudcomputing.html
Nat Wei's 'Big Society' – badly received and ill conceived, but only so far
I really think, that with all the goodwill I can possibly muster for Lord Wei’s ‘Big Society’, politically it has been badly received. More crucially, academically, it is poorly conceived. The Big Society is the flagship policy idea of the 2010 Conservative Party general election manifesto and forms part of the legislative programme of the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement. According to the Civil Society website,
“The Big Society is struggling to capture the imagination of the public as a poll shows that more than half of voters claim not to have heard of the idea. But while many have not heard of the Conservative policy to encourage personal responsibility and community spirit, a similar proportion of voters (54 per cent) believe it is a good idea once it is explained to them, according to the Ipsos Mori poll commissioned by the RSA and released today. “
An important aim is to create a climate that empowers local people and communities, building a big society that will ‘take power away from politicians and give it to people’. It was launched in the 2010 Conservative manifesto and described by The Times as “an impressive attempt to reframe the role of government and unleash entrepreneurial spirit”.
Lord Nat Wei, one of the founders of the Big Society Network, was appointed by David Cameron to advise the government on the Big Society programme.
The stated priorities are:
1. Give communities more powers
The arguments that this has been the focus of the work of charities, communities and the Labour Party have been exhaustively discussed elsewhere. A greater concern is that no government appears to value certain sectors of society, e.g. lollypop ladies, whilst the inequality gap has got substantially wider under Labour, while governments always safeguard bankers. Take, for example, the ode to wealth creators David Cameron is going to produce in his speech this afternoon.
2. Encourage people to take an active role in their communities
At the end of the day, you can’t force people to take an active role in their communities. In other words, a person is not voluntarily likely to do bus driving for free, when he or she feels that someone else is doing it, and being paid for it. Many unemployed people will be too terrified about their long-term benefits, and what may or may not threat them, whilst actively looking for salaried employment, to engage with their local community.
3. Transfer power from central to local government
Thatcher effectively tried to bribe local voters to vote for the Conservative Party by generating a lower poll tax in the 1980s. People know full well how shallow and unintelligent this was, and there has been much healthy interest in the Labour/Co-operative movement which has been a successful model in transferring power from central to local government.
4. Support co-operatives, mutuals, charities and social enterprises
From what I can understand, Lord Wei envisages the business part of the ‘Big Society’ as a social franchising model. The main problem from that, unless they are managed correctly, such business entities can suffer from lack of investment, recruitment, shared resources, and, ultimately, profitability. It is indeed an answerable case why functions of the private sector or public sector should be offloaded onto charities aka the third sector.
It’s all very well the? Big Society Network’s? chief? executive? Paul? Twivy? providing that,
“its? three? goals? are? to? encourage? people? to? take? action? in? their? local? area,? to? encourage? people? to? take? part? in? groups? and? to? help? community? groups? and? social? entrepreneurs? to? access? the? local? powers? that? the? government’s? Big ?Society ?legislative? programme ?will? create. ?”
however I would strongly argue that we have yet to have the academic business debate about it. The word ‘social entrepreneur’ undoubtedly has a ‘feel-good’ factor, but the merits of social franchising requiring some detailed security, if we are to invest millions into promoting it; into investing into it, through the Big Society Bank for example.
Don’t get me wrong – it could be a wonderful success?
5. Publish government data.
This is a useful function, provided that one essential assumption is met. That is, “The Big Society” is separate from government. Otherwise, this point has absolutely no credibility whatsoever.
Early days – it could be an incredible success or unmitigated disaster. A real marmite policy, if ever there were one.
