Introduction to Cloud Computing Technology
Discuss about the Cloud Computing Technology Hits Snag in Europe.
Technology is the term that has changed the approach and lives of the human. It has offered some of the most innovative & disruptive innovations such as internet, computers, mobiles & several others (Gasser & O’Brien, 2014). One of such technological advancement is the cloud computing where a user owns the capability to use computing services (processing, storing, analysing, controlling and others) from geographical distance location without physically investing in the servers, storage, equipment and other computing devices (Austin, 2016). However, the discussed technology has offered its own share of challenges which are mostly related to security & privacy. Hence, the government of different states have their own policies & standards in place to mitigate the threat posed by the challenges associated with the cloud services (Grodal & Granqvist, 2014). However, a question that have raised in the recent time is that whether these policies are maintaining the security & privacy of a user’s information or are acting as a barrier to evolution of the technology.
In a recent scenario, an idea was proposed that would mitigate the communication gap between geographical distinct persons who belongs to different culture & location and their languages are foreign to each other (Travis, 2015). The proposed idea was to use cloud computing services to formulate a plan system where two culturally & lingual different people would be able to verbally communicate with each other in real time. To attain the discussed objective, it was proposed that the calls be made through cloud services where the words spoken by one individual will be translated to the language understandable to the listener in real-time (Hameed et al., 2016). In other words, Australian English will be translated to China’s Madrin and the Australian who does not understand Madrin would be able to convey his/her message to the Chinese who does not understand English and the case will be the same in other scenario (Ahmed et al., 2015). All the process will be done in real-time through cloud voice translator to make the communication more effective. The idea seems feasible and implementable which could have been implemented however, the European countries rejected the proposed idea.
Unlike most of the countries around the globe, the cyber laws of the European countries are well defined and structured. They have focused especially on the privacy & security of the technology that involves transfer of data (Girma et al., 2015). In the proposed idea, by using the cloud services the data would have been transferred across the borders which is against the policies defined by the government. The European countries and more specifically British government are very strict against cross-border data sharing, they have only signed deals with only a few countries such as US, Canada and Argentina for using cloud services in their geographical domain (Al-Ayyoub et al., 2015). This strictness over the sharing of data across the border has made the implementation of the proposed idea a very difficult task and developing an ethical dilemma. The dilemma is regarding the protection of the citizen against privacy & security or let the technology offer the citizen comfort and ability to expand their global approach.
Challenges Associated with Cloud Computing in Europe
The impact of rejection of this idea will mostly affect the business personals and the scholars who were wishing that the deemed idea will allow them to increase their approach (Stergiou et al., 2018). The business associates would have received the opportunity to increase their consumer & client base while mitigating their expenditure which they bear on outsourcing of the consumer services due to the language and geographical distance barriers (Kaur & Rai, 2014). The scholars would have received the opportunity to discuss and analyse their subject with other scholars from geographically distant location who could have assisted the former in their work.
Another, notable fact that needs to be noticed that the idea has been suspended and not rejected because the technological giants such as HP, Google, Oracle and others are looking for the strategy to mitigate the challenge without deepening the ethical dilemma (Rao, Naveena & David, 2015). They have suggested two methods which are ethically sound and will also enable to keep the data protected while cross border transfer of data. The first method involves encryption of data at the instant when the data is being uploaded over the communication channel and after successful deployment it will get decrypted. The discussed proposed methodology is following the guidelines of the European countries and in the process is keeping the data protected while communicating cross-border in real time (Whaiduzzaman et al., 2014). The second idea, proposed by the researchers at the technological giants is to allow the users who are willing to transfer their data cross-border to select the level of privacy they want. The guidelines for cyber security in the European countries are very elaborate which describes about everything from phone number to e-mail and street address. So, the proposed remedy allows the user to choose the privacy limit where they will get the opportunity to reveal their phone number while keeping the e-mail, street address and other data decrypted and safe (Grodal & Granqvist, 2014). Other demands are also requesting the demands to restructuring of the cyber guidelines to offer more freedom for the computing services.
The discussed situation can be emphasised to state that the European countries are arguably justified at their position and so are the organisations who have proposed the discussed idea (O’Brien, 2010). However, the developed ethical dilemma can be mitigated by finding a middle path that would fulfil both the demands, if not completely than partially also. The proposed remedial strategies could be the potential solution to the dilemma. Additionally, the dilemma should be mitigated in the shortest possible time so that the users can enjoy the significance benefit that the proposed idea is capable of offering.
Proposed Idea for Real-Time Verbal Communication through Cloud Computing Services
What is going on?
Cloud Computing is a growing technology which has been introduced in Europe however, it has not been fully accepted due to privacy and security issues. According to Europe their rules and regulations has different definitions for using cloud computing thus, cloud computing has still not made its way in Europe completely.
What are the facts?
- The privacy laws are strict that hinder the information movement beyond the Europe borders.
- The government of Europe fears that their personal data might get stole during the flow of information.
- There are restrictions on using cloud computing due to issues in Europe however, it has not killed the business. The evolution of cloud computing in Europe is slows than United States.
- Europe uses cloud computing nearly 26 percent of what other countries are using.
- European Data Privacy Directive in Europe that facilitates the international data transfers is an obstacle as they prohibits the data movement outside Europe.
What are the issues?
- The Europe has still not considered cloud computing to use in its businesses
- Europe is restricting the use of cloud computing for data transfer.
- Europe has its strict definitions for data transfer that hinders the adoption of cloud computing.
Who is affected?
Microsoft, Google, Hewlett Packard and Oracle are affected.
What are the ethical issues and implications?
- The data can be stolen during transfer of data beyond the boundaries of Europe. This can cause major devastation to the country.
- The privacy laws are strict in Europe where essential data required for movement beyond the boundaries of Europe is not considered. This can affect the businesses.
- The personal information flowing between the two countries can lead to cybercrimes. This can make the whole scenario destructive where common people will be affected.
- The legal obstacles are faced by companies like Microsoft, Google, Hewlett Packard and Oracle which are providing cloud computing services to the business in Europe. They will be affected majorly.
- Europe lags behind United States, which is utilizing the full potential of cloud computing. Europe is thus evolving slowly lagging behind United States.
What can be done about it?
There are several ways which can be done about it and they are as follows. The first one is encryption of data prior sending of data in cloud computing and decrypting after the data leaves cloud computing. This will help in privacy and security control. The second one is setting the degree of security and privacy control on each and every part of information flowing through cloud. This will help in shielding the sensitive data. The third one is HP Privacy Advisor that can handle the data transfer within Europe and outside Europe.
What options are there?
- The cloud computing should not be used in Europe.
- The privacy control measures should be adopted to minimize the concerns related to cybercrime.
- The laws of Europe should be loosen.
Which option is best – and why?
The second option is best as cloud computing has huge benefits and its use will drive the European industries in present and future. The challenges are there regarding privacy however, with proper measures such as improved encryption and decryption for data in cloud computing and privacy control measures where degree of privacy is chosen to transfer data. Thus this will help to use cloud computing in Europe effectively.
References
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Austin, W. (2016). Industry 4.0: Myths vs. Reality.
Gasser, U., & O’Brien, D. (2014). Governments and Cloud Computing: Roles, Approaches, and Policy Considerations.
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Grodal, S., & Granqvist, N. (2014). Great expectations: Discourse and affect during field emergence. In Emotions and the Organizational Fabric (pp. 139-166). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Hameed, A., Khoshkbarforoushha, A., Ranjan, R., Jayaraman, P. P., Kolodziej, J., Balaji, P., … & Khan, S. U. (2016). A survey and taxonomy on energy efficient resource allocation techniques for cloud computing systems. Computing, 98(7), 751-774.
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Rao, T. V. N., Naveena, K., & David, R. (2015). A New Computing Envornment Using Hybrid Cloud. Journal of Information Sciences and Computing Technologies, 3(1), 180-185.
Stergiou, C., Psannis, K. E., Kim, B. G., & Gupta, B. (2018). Secure integration of IoT and cloud computing. Future Generation Computer Systems, 78, 964-975.
Travis, H. (2015). Myths of the Internet as the Death of Old Media. AIPLA QJ, 43, 1.
Whaiduzzaman, M., Sookhak, M., Gani, A., & Buyya, R. (2014). A survey on vehicular cloud computing. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 40, 325-344.