legal issues

Are AWS and HP cloud SLAs really useless?

Last week, a Gartner analyst wrote in her blog post suggesting the public cloud services of AWS and HP have the "worst SLA of any major cloud provider" for their availability zones requirement and "complex" SLA wordings. How did AWS, HP and an international law firm Pinsent Masons respond to this?
by: Carol Ko 19-Dec-2012

Cloud computing -- a Singapore legislative and regulatory overview

The Singapore government has chosen to adopt a "cloud friendly" policy as seen by the Singapore government's own adoption of cloud computing for government services and a light-handed approach in terms of legislating the adoption of cloud computing.
by: Gigi Cheah and Jeremy Tan, Norton Rose 11-Dec-2012

Data protection laws II -- APAC data privacy laws update

Data protection laws update matter to cloud users because their data may reside in a different jurisdiction. Here is a quick guide on the data protection laws update in South Korea, Taiwan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong.
by: Carol Ko 11-Sep-2012

HK Legco IT election rivals on cloud III: Defending internet freedom

Hong Kong Legco election 2012 IT seat contestants Charles Mok and Samson Tam comment on the latest issues with Hong Kong's internet freedom, and the actions they took to defend internet freedom in the city the past four years.
by: Carol Ko 06-Sep-2012
Philippines passes data privacy law
To ensure the long-term implementation of the new law, the government will set up a National Privacy Commission under the President's Office, which will be tasked to monitor and ensure compliance of the country with international data protection standards.
by: Eden Estopace 25-Aug-2012

Data protection laws I -- policymakers' perspective

What are some of challenges policymakers face when drafting data protection laws? Is it a problem if data privacy laws disregard "data" as "assets? And why is it a challenge for policymakers to factor in industry-specific regulatory and compliance requirements?
by: Carol Ko 15-Aug-2012

New HK data privacy laws can mean biz advantage

The new rules will bring about new opportunities to put in place IT systems and infrastructure that gives them a business advantage over their competitors. They will also present an opportunity for enterprises to deploy IT that helps them turn data -- which, in itself, is not very useful -- into information.
by: Allison Walton, Symantec 24-Jul-2012

Asia Cloud Computing Association launches cloud assessment tool

Using a matrix of parameters to map cloud services requirements and offers, ACCA's Cloud Assessment Tool helps enterprises to evaluate cloud vendors objectively on a scale of Level 1 to 4.
by: Asia Cloud Forum editors 21-Jun-2012

Devil hunting in cloud service contracts

"Read the SLAs" as we are often told. What exactly are the dangers in a cloud contract? What obscure terms must CIOs watch out for? Does a cloud service contract necessarily spell out data ownership? And do cloud vendors owe a duty of data protection to their customers?
by: Carol Ko 19-Jun-2012

Potential data jurisdiction problems for cloud service users

While the jurisdictional issues of cloud service adoption may not be resolved completely through the contract, being aware of these issues enables a customer to negotiate terms it requires to meet its regulatory obligations and to "price in" these concerns into the value of the cloud service.
by: Gigi Cheah and Jeremy Tan, Norton Rose 06-Jun-2012