Is Cloud Computing the Ultimate Form of Globalization?

Cloud computing is a much dicussed hot topic these days. Cloud data storage, web based applications, and netbook computers (where much of the functionality is relegated to the web rather than the physical computer) are all blasting up the steep side of the hype cycle.

In this new computing environment, what are going to be the unique challenges that come up? For example: if your data is on a European server, and you’re in the US, who’s laws does your data and activities fall under? The Economist tackles these questions in an interesting article on cloud computing,which they call “the ultimate form of globalization”.

They report:

When the internet went mainstream in the late 1990s, libertarian thinkers argued that cyberspace was a distinct place calling for laws and legal institutions of its own. After all, they said, it was built in such a way “that it interprets censorship as damage and routes around it”. But many governments quickly found ways to block content they deemed offensive. Just look at China and its “great firewall”.

Controlling where data are stored and how they are treated is harder, though, because information can float freely in the cloud. And it is not just undemocratic governments that want to control their citizens’ and companies’ data: indeed there are nearly as many sets of data regulation as there are countries. “If we wanted to be on the safe side in terms of regulation, we probably would need 95 individual data centres,” says Chuck Hollis, a technologist at EMC, the leading maker of storage gear, which owns Mozy, a cloud service that allows users to back up their data.

The Economist: “Computers without borders”

[via  Dosh Dosh]