Nudging Cloud Providers: Improving Cloud Architectures Through Intermediary Services

Two of the most important developments of this new century are the emergence of Cloud computing and Big Data. However, the uncertainties surrounding the failure of Cloud service providers to clearly assert “ownership” rights of data during Cloud computing transactions and Big Data services have been perceived as imposing transaction costs and slowing down the capacity of the Internet market to thrive. “Click-through” agreements drafted on a “take it or leave it” basis govern the current state of the art and they do not allow much room for negotiation. The novel contribution of this chapter proffers a new contractual model advocating the extension of the negotiation capabilities of Cloud customers, enabling thus an automated and machine-readable framework, orchestrated by a “Cloud broker.” Cloud computing and Big Data are constantly evolving and transforming into new paradigms where Cloud brokers are predicted to play a vital role as an intermediary adding extra value to the entire life cycle. This chapter situates the theories of behavioral law and economics (“Nudge Theory”) in the context of Cloud computing and Big Data, and takes “ownership” rights of data as a canonical example to represent the problem of collecting and sharing data at the global scale. It does this by highlighting the legal constraints concerning Japan’s Personal Information Protection Act (Act No. 57 of 2003, hereinafter “PIPA”) and proposes a solution outside the boundaries and limitations of the law. By allowing Cloud brokers to establish themselves in the market as entities coordinating and actively engaging in the negotiation of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), individual customers and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) could efficiently and effortlessly choose a Cloud provider that best suits their needs. This can yield radical new results for the development of the Cloud computing and Big Data market.