Fighting FUD: cloud players try to make sense of European data protection laws

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

Optimists hope that the EU’s expected cloud computing recommendations will resolve concerns around diverse data protection laws that slow cloud adoption. Realists hope for the best, but prepare for less. The reality is Europe remains a collection of countries, not a unified whole.
Brandenburg gatephoto: Flickr / compujeramey

When the European Commission unveils its new cloud computing plan of action this week, the hope is it will reduce fear, uncertainty and doubt around Europe’s confusing welter of data protection laws that are impeding the broad adoption of cloud — especially public cloud — technologies. The European Cloud Computing Strategy is expected to push an array of standards for cloud computing and to help alleviate some of the legal hurdles to adoption…

Industry players who talked to GigaOM, clearly hope for the best but are prepping for less. Of the EU’s effort to rationalize all these conflicting dictates, a top executive of one of Europe’s leading cloud providers quipped: ”They say they’re moving but glaciers move too.” The problem is that while the EU has set policy around data protection, the regulations are not uniform across its 27 countries,with Germany often cited for its tough data privacy laws that mandate that personally identifiable information (PII) of consumers remain on German soil. Switzerland, a non EU country has similarly strict laws. Clearly, that geographic requirement flies in the face of the notion that cloud computing is a borderless, frictionless world where consumers transact with merchants not necessarily knowing where that transaction takes place…

Read more from the source @ http://gigaom.com/cloud/fighting-fud-cloud-players-try-to-make-sense-of-european-data-protection-laws/