Europe Turns to the Cloud – lawmakers review E.U. data privacy laws

July 29, 2011 at 11:56 am | Posted in Aerospace Law Interfaces, Telecommunications | Leave a comment

by Sara M. Langston with the blog faculty

Data privacy laws in Europe restrict the transfer of information about individuals outside the 27-country European Union. That had prevented many companies on the Continent from moving to the cloud, where data may be stored on remote servers in Asia, the United States or elsewhere at a lower cost than what a company would pay for its own servers.

Yet despite the tricky legal landscape, Shutl, now a two-year-old start-up, has become one of Europe’s most avid users of cloud technology. The company carries out more than 1,000 deliveries a day over a cloud network operated by Amazon, the U.S. Web retailer.

Cloud computing could get a lift soon from Brussels, where lawmakers are reviewing the European Union’s data protection directive, which governs how personal information travels within and outside the 27-nation bloc. Viviane Reding, the European commissioner overseeing the revisions, plans to make a proposal this autumn.[more]