Increasingly, government is turning to the “cloud” to help with their technology needs and to make work more efficient. With technology companies such as Google and Amazon investing in infrastructure and servers and providing that storage at “cheap” rates, governments are looking at moving to those networks. After all, data can be accessed regardless of physical location, storage is cheaper and offices no longer have to support that, and they can reduce technology costs.
But all of this comes with some considerations and possibly even some hidden costs, especially if there are public records involved–confidentiality of records, issues concerning getting records back out of the cloud, how that works and at what cost as well as the providers promise of service in terms of access and productivity?
The State Archives of North Carolina examined these issues and published a guidance document titled:“Best Practices for Cloud Computing: Records Management Considerations”. The document explores common service models, provides definitions, and examines e-discovery issues and your role in facilitating that. While it does touch on the definition of cloud computing and issues about it, the document is primarily focused on records management in the cloud. Take a look, we welcome your feedback. http://www.records.ncdcr.gov/guides/cloud_computing_final_20120801.pdf.
[...] Kelly explores the implications of cloud computing to public records; [...]
By: Highlights from Archives and Records for August « History For All the People on August 17, 2012
at 4:27 pm
[...] A recent post by Kelly Eubank, Electronic Records Branch Head, introduced the topic of Records and the Cloud and referred you to our agency’s guidance document on Cloud Computing at http://www.records.ncdcr.gov/guides/cloud_computing_final_20120801.pdf. Please refer to that guidance for an understanding of cloud computing and the general benefits and risks of storing records in the cloud. From the perspective of litigation and the requirement to produce records and data that may be stored in the cloud, I refer you to a recent article in the Metropolitan Counsel magazine. This article highlights some of the questions to address and concerns to raise with a service provider contracted by a state agency to store information, data, and records that may be the subject of an e-discovery* request. Such concerns involve: i) data segregation—is the service provider ensuring your data is effectively insulated from access by others, ii) recoverability of the records—what kinds of backup and disaster recovery plans are in place to ensure prompt recovery of the data, iii) the security of the records and data in the cloud and what steps have been taken by the service provider to ensure confidentiality of the data, iv) legal and regulatory concerns such as jurisdictional issue of where the cloud is ‘located’ and who ‘owns’ it , and v) the portability or ease of transferring data out of the cloud at any given time especially if urgent access is needed for litigation. I highly recommend this article for its valuable delineation of the concerns litigation counsel should be aware of when a state agency is contracting to store data and records in a cloud.. The article can be accessed at [...]
By: Cloud Computing and E-Discovery « The G.S. 132 Files on October 31, 2012
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