Cloud Providers Viability: How to Address it from an IT and Legal Perspective?

Abstract

Abstract. A major part of the commercial Internet is moving towards a cloud paradigm. This phenomenon has a drastic impact on the organizational structures of enterprises and introduces new challenges that must be properly addressed to avoid major setbacks. One such challenge is that of cloud provider viability, that is, the reasonable certainty that the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) will not go out of business, either by filing for bankruptcy or by simply shutting down operations, thus leaving its customers stranded without an infrastructure and, depending on the type of cloud service used, even without their applications or data. This article attempts to address the issue of cloud provider viability, proposing some ways of mitigating the problem both from a technical and from a legal perspective.

Economics behind ICT infrastructure management

“…The second paper by Cesare Bartolini, Donia El Kateb, Yves Le Traon and David Hagen, entitled BCloud Providers Viability: How to Address it from an IT and Legal Perspective?^ (Bartolini et al 2018), addresses the problem of cloud provider viability. Cloud provider viability defines the reasonable certainty that a cloud provider will give support to clients when filing for bankruptcy or simply shutting down operations.…”

“…It requires the definition of clear mechanisms and specifications for evaluating penalty clauses in service level agreements and for evaluating risks. Additionally, it would provide certainty when a cloud service provider goes out of business (Bartolini et al 2016), and it would determine which courts are competent to adjudicate disputes arising out of a service level agreement (Petri et al 2012;Ghumman and Schill 2017).…”