US: NSA leaks should be no excuse for local storage mandates, which harm “organic” internet by David Meyer:
From the post:
The U.S. State Department has warned against countries such as Russia forcing web service providers to store citizens’ data locally, even though such moves are at least in part inspired by Edward Snowden’s revelations of the NSA spying on foreigners’ personal data.
“[People should not] use the Snowden revelations as an excuse for taking what are essentially protectionist measures that will harm the ability of the internet to work in an organic way,” a State Department official said Thursday, ahead of the annual Internet Governance Forum meeting in Istanbul next week.
With truthful translation inserted:
“[People should not] use the Snowden revelations as an excuse for taking what are essentially protectionist measures that will prevent unlimited data mining by the NSA,” a State Department official said Thursday, ahead of the annual Internet Governance Forum meeting in Istanbul next week.
Will local storage hurt cloud computing?
You bet! It will hurt cloud providers, service providers, the whole range of activities associated with the cloud and the people who perform those activities.
The more critical point is the NSA or more properly, the United States government, should have considered the risk to the developing Cloud infrastructure before so thoroughly abusing it.
How much danger is posed by damaging the Cloud?
Investors.com quotes IHS Technology as saying:
Cloud-related tech spending by businesses is forecast to triple from 2011 to 2017, the research firm said. By 2017, enterprise spending on cloud computing will amount to a projected $235.1 billion, triple the $78.2 billion spent in 2011, IHS said.
As Gross Domestic Product (GDP), cloud spending of $235.1 billion puts the cloud in the top fifty countries by GDP. Or between Finland and Israel according to United Nations estimates.
How long it may take the cloud to break into the top 25 countries by GDP isn’t clear.
What is clear is that so long as the Cloud is subject to the whim and caprice of the NSA and similar organizations, it will never reach its full economic potential. If you care about the cloud and its economic future, demand the NSA be hobbled before it does any more damage.
PS: Demands for action that are accompanied by donations get the most attention. The equivalent of a top 50 (or better) GDP economic opportunity is the tech community’s to lose.