Policymakers Take Varied Approaches in Defining Regulatory Certainty for Cloud Services
GENEVA -- Policymaker submissions to an ITU Global Symposium for Regulators consultation on spurring the availability of cloud services internationally echoed the importance of the technology, though policy suggestions, definitions, concerns, and ideas on how best to provide regulatory certainty varied. The consultation to the Oct. 2-4 event in Colombo, Sri Lanka, aimed at identifying approaches that policymakers and regulators can use to spur access to digital opportunities through cloud services, the ITU website said.
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Governments must collaborate to boost regulatory predictability for the cloud, the U.S. said in a submission. Cloud services will not thrive if they are subjected to a “hodge-podge” of regulatory regimes, it said, particularly if they undermine the overall advantages of cloud-based computing. History has shown that the free flow of information “can enable unprecedented economic opportunity and productivity,” and boost domestic production and jobs, it said.
The FCC believes the international community needs to unite on core policy principles to spur development and adoption of cloud services, the U.S. said, namely policies that boost trust on the Internet, spur international harmonization of spectrum use and device approvals, and avoid unduly restrictive and protectionist regulations that make it more difficult for new market entrants, it said.
Regulators face the daunting task of defining national broadband goals while ensuring markets benefit from the healthy competition that stimulates innovation and delivers digital inclusion for all, said Hamadoun Toure, the ITU secretary-general. Successfully implementing national broadband strategies means working in partnership with all stakeholders, he said. He referred to fixed and mobile operators, virtual network operators, Internet service providers, broadcasters and other emerging network service and content providers.
"Cloud computing providers face considerable regulatory uncertainty,” Egypt said in a submission. Regulators should take steps to ensure that industry has the tools and the opportunity to explore cloud computing and its ability to deliver “guaranteed levels of quality of service” (QoS) and “different levels of reliability” that consumers are willing to pay for, it said. Telecom companies in a Polish Office of Electronic Communications initiative are involved in introducing minimum requirements “to avoid degradation” of QoS provided to consumers, Poland said. Egypt said a precise description of key characteristics of “cloud computing” is still under development.
The new state of affairs resulting from cloud computing “requires revision of the existing regulatory and legislative frameworks,” Burkina Faso said in a submission. Regulators need to take particular attention to issues relating to market power, universal access to services and quality of service, Zimbabwe said in a submission. Regulators should be able to “dictate a minimum quality of service,” it said.
Largely proprietary cloud application programming interfaces (APIs) limit customers’ ability to switch to different providers, Egypt said. Standardizing APIs would spur data portability and boost reliability, it said. Consumers will likely want to control where their data are stored, it said.
A distinction should be made between prescriptive jurisdiction and enforcement jurisdiction when it comes to data sovereignty in the cloud environment, Zimbabwe said. Prescriptive jurisdiction refers to a regulator’s ability to put in place regulations governing certain cloud computing transactions, it said. Enforcement jurisdiction refers to the regulator’s ability to enforce compliance with the set regulations, it said.
"Regional clouds” are a unique opportunity for countries to cooperate through the establishment of regional regulatory frameworks “and other protective measures” for local small and medium-sized businesses, Lebanon said on behalf of the Arab Regulators Network.