Legal Issues and Requirements for Cloud Computing in e-Science

Cloud technologies have increasingly gained momentum in recent years, primarily due to their promise of enhanced performance, such as elasticity, scalability, risk reduction and the easy deployment of end-user services. Despite the great interest and success achieved by the Cloud model, there are still some legal issues raised both in the scientific sector and the information society as a whole. The objective of this paper is to provide the needed starting points for a reflection aimed at the creation of a new governance and legislative model on data protection, privacy and security to develop an efficient strategy on Cloud Computing, notably for government and e-Science, promoting innovation and interoperability in Europe.