Cloud Computing is fundamentally altering the business, economic and operational landscape for the availability, use and cost of information, data, communication, processing and technology around the world. Business enterprises, governments and consumers will all be affected - their connection with the 'cloud' and just as significantly from a legal viewpoint, with each other. Reed Smith's Cloud Computing Initiative digs well below the surface of the legal, regulatory and contractual implications presented by Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing is not a technological phenomenon any more than Social Media. Cloud Computing, like Social Media, while driven and enabled by technology and innovation, represents a fundamental and significant shift in the manner in which technology will be used by everyone and available to everyone in the years ahead. The result will be shifting and often unique legal and regulatory challenges, and fundamentally different business, economic and operational relationships between providers and business enterprise, between business enterprise and customers, between suppliers and business enterprise and customers, and even internally within each business itself.
"Transcending the Cloud: A Legal Guide to the Risks and Rewards of Cloud Computing" represents a collection of white papers, created by experienced, legal thought leaders at Reed Smith, coordinated through the leadership of a Cloud Computing Task Force. These papers represent a significant investment of time and legal work by all of those who contributed to its creation and ongoing evolution. Transcending the Cloud will dynamically evolve, just as cloud computing evolves and as the challenges grow. Over time, some answers to unanswered legal questions will unfold – just as inevitably, new questions will arise. Perhaps in some cases, questions will linger, shrouded in a fog of uncertainty. Our goal, admittedly ambitious, is to stimulate your thinking, have you share with us your concerns, provide you with insights based on our experience and expertise and, of course, have you retain us to help navigate the growing and significant legal issues that will affect you, as we embark on our flight through the clouds. We invite you to be part of our community and part of the conversation.