Professional Documents
Culture Documents
S Marquez Cloud Computing
S Marquez Cloud Computing
S Marquez Cloud Computing
Sarah Marquez
National University
11/08/2013
Ikonen, and Timmermans p 3). All three of these issues play a central role when discussing
ethical issues of cloud computing.
Since cloud computing uses outsourcing or offshoring with third party vendors, the topic
over control can become problematic. Among risk associated with cloud computing are
unauthorized access, data corruption, infrastructure failure, or unavailability (Bozadag, Carsten,
Ikonen, and Timmermans p 3). As a user you can become vulnerable to not having control over
your systems or the information that is being shared. There are also questions of system
reliability, when you expect your systems to be available 24/7 and do not want to suffer any loss
of business capability if the IT infrastructure were to malfunction (Laudon p184). Cloud
computing puts companies at the risk and mercy of the systems if something was to go wrong.
The text and article both touch on these two important points about the system.
Cloud computing also allows the storage of important information at different locations at
multiple times. This typically may lead to what is referred to in ethical literature as the problem
of many hands (Bozadag, Carsten, Ikonen, and Timmermans p 3). I deal with this most
commonly at my current job. Since we process so much information and there are multiple
people processing and sharing the information, if a red flag goes unnoticed, multiple
consequence can occur. If a complex chain of events happens and multiple people will have had
the opportunity to prevent these consequences, it will be very hard to label someone as
responsible (Bozadag, Carsten, Ikonen, and Timmermans p 3). When Amazons cloud went
down in December of 2009. Subscribers on the US east coast were unable to use their systems
for several hours (Laudon p184). This may have been hard for Amazon to pin point what caused
this from happening.
Overall the text and the article agree about the drawbacks that cloud computing can
produce. Security, Privacy and control are all big factors to think about when participating in
cloud computing. It will be important for companies to identify the risks and weigh out the
advantages and disadvantages when relying in this type of technology. The article really
contributes to the awareness and the importance of ethics when analyzing the use of cloud
computing.
References
Lauden, K. Management Information Systems (12th Edition)
(Bozadag E, Carsten B, Ikonen V, and Timmermans J. the Ethics f Cloud Computing. A
Conceptual Review.