According to the cloud computing readiness index announced by BSA (Business Software Alliance) early this year, Korea is ranked 8th among 24 countries that take up 80% of the global IT market. The weak domains for Korea in this index include security, cyber-crime, and international information exchange and policy. According to Herzberg’s two factor theory, if the hygiene factors that function as inhibitors are overwhelming, the motivational factors that work as merits cannot attract attention of the market. This analysis and announcement of BSA that puts more weight on the hygiene factors contain substantial practical implications for the future development of Korean cloud computing and services and the Korean government policies.
At the public hearing on August 16th about the “Law of Cloud Computing Development and User protection” (Cloud Law, hereafter), there appeared the explicit distinction in the major concerns between the government and industry, which is the conflict between the possible regulation and the promotion initiated by the government. We need constructive wisdom to resolve this conflict and propose brilliant ideas to help the future development of cloud computing in Korea.
According to the International Working Group on Cloud Computing Resiliency (IWGCR), the annual average break-down time of the 13 major cloud computing vendors including Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Hostway is 7.3 hours since 2007, causing the damages worthy of US$ 71.73 million. While there have been diverse reasons for the lack of such mishap, the individual or organizational users have prepared the appropriate insurance counter-measures against such mishap. Some organizations have implemented the private clouds for the sake of hybrid delivery model of cloud computing services and/or have requested the SLA (service level agreement) articles for frictionless migration among different clouds.
While such counter-measures to guarantee the accessibility to cloud computing are critical for users, the fundamental issues still remain for the protection of user’s information. The articles related to these concerns in the Cloud Law include the immediate notice of diverse accidents (article 23), user’s permission of personal information (article 25), notice of the overseas location of user’s information (article 27), and contracting the surety insurance to destroy or return user’s information in case of business closure (article 31). The small and medium sized cloud computing and service vendors complain these requirements of government are burdensome for management because of substantial additional costs and potential unfair business ground in competing against foreign vendors.
Provided that all these complaints sound reasonable, all these extra-services are also eligible for outsourcing and call for potential new business opportunities. We can expect the birth of new business opportunities for professional cloud service user protection. Actually, we cannot but agree that most of government policies contain both aspects of promotion and regulation. Instead of dead-end arguments regarding whether the Cloud Law has the characteristics of the regulation or the promotion, we may well concentrate more on the constructive issues regarding whether this law helps overcome the BSA’s three weak points of Korean cloud services such as international information exchange and policy, security and cyber crimes and whether this law encourages the new business opportunities in these regards.
No government policies have been perfect and also markets have fulfilled such loop-holes very effectively and nimbly with new business activities. It is the legitimate attitude of government to estimate the possible hygiene factors and scheme how to prevent from such risks. Without removing the hygiene factors, motivations for new business cannot break the ground and survive. Due to the recent popular cloud storage services, users feel more inclined to store their data and access to them through diverse devices comfortably and securely. However, one critical and short glitch remains strong and irreconcilable memory overriding all the joyful and delightful benefits from new technologies and services available for ages. Government cannot but maintain the strict attitude which is beyond negotiation. Market cannot stay put to complain against the government attitude but need to move on to develop new business opportunities.
Hee Dong Yang is a Full professor of Ewha School of Business , Ewah Womans University. He is also a Visiting professor at University of Paderborn in Germany and at Hitotsubashi University in Japan. He is an advisor professor of Samsung Electronics DMC and has contributed to management assessments and social activities of public institutions, including the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. He received B.A (1988) and M.A (1991) in College of Management of Seoul National University. He got Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from Case Western Reserve University (2000).
