Data protection changes could be boon for European cloud providers

A change in the way in which data protection is looked at in the European Union could represent a wealth of opportunity for European providers of cloud computing.

This is according to Andy Burton, chairman of the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), who told delegates at this week's Cloud Expo Europe in London that the EU's date protection proposals will unsettle some end users but providers actually stand to benefit.

Unveiled by EU Justice Commissioner Vivian Reding on Wednesday, the new proposals include giving people the right to request that their personal information be removed from the servers of third parties unless that third party can prove it has grounds to retain it.

However, if the cloud provider is based in the United States the data is covered by the Patriot Act, which enables the US government to access the date if any form of criminal activity is suspected.

While Burton believes "This is unlikely to be an issue in reality unless you’re involved in anything dodgy", he admits to feeling that European cloud providers could benefit from the concern some firms will have over their data being accessible on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

“It also comes back to that sense that people want to work with organisations that they trust,” he told TechWorld.com.

“I mean that with no negativity towards Google or Amazon – they’re good quality businesses. But the point is they’ve not got the same personality; they’re not your local reseller.”

On the whole the new European legislation has been welcomed by the cloud computing sector.

But Francois Zimmermann of Hitachi Data Systems UK has expressed concerns over the timescale involved in putting the proposals into force. In his view the two year time frame suggested is too long because the industry evolves so rapidly.

"To implement effective data management policies the rules and policies should be updated as part of an evolutionary process, with changes being introduced as and when they are needed, rather than in a raft every few years or so," he added.

Despite data concerns, Maggie Meer, organiser of the Cloud Expo Europe 2012 event, said recently that more than 50 per cent of businesses see the benefit of using cloud computing in there day to day operations.

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