Big if and but, the DPA of which they should be aware.<br><br>but sometimes the USA does have a clue about information retieval..<br><br><a href="http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/archive/2010/12/16/News+%28Cakenews%29/8740181.Formula_One_style_technology_used_in_court_case/">http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/archive/2010/12/16/News+%28Cakenews%29/8740181.Formula_One_style_technology_used_in_court_case/</a><br>
<br><br clear="all">-- <br>Martin Hepworth<br>Oxford, UK<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 17 December 2010 11:38, Michael Simpson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mikie.simpson@gmail.com">mikie.simpson@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
It seems that cloud computing is the new shiny up here in sunny<br>
scotland. Specifically use of cloud computing infrastructure to reduce<br>
costs in the NHS. Microsoft appear to be front and centre in the<br>
various presentations being given to the civil service and the buzz is<br>
growing about use of their Azure service. Whilst i understand and have<br>
used cloud services (mainly EC2 since its inception) for some specific<br>
tasks such as rapid prototyping of web applications for demo purposes<br>
and also for a highly scalable render farm experiment i am at a bit of<br>
a loss to see why it should be used in lieu of the normal<br>
"infrastructure as a service" or software as a service provided those<br>
companies already contracted (and paid for) by the taxpayer.<br>
-maybe for speeding up rendering of MRI images or scaling the intraweb<br>
server automagically so that when everyone hits it at 0900 it remains<br>
snappy, both of which could be achieved by utilising virtual machines<br>
or distributed clients to take advantage of *many* wasted cpu cycles<br>
that the scottish NHS already has.<br>
<br>
</rant><br>
<br>
The point of this mail though is to bring to your attention the<br>
recent revelation by Jon Honeyball in this month's "PC Pro" after he<br>
managed to corner Bob Muglia - president of MSFT's server and tools<br>
business and asked him about the sanctity of data stored in their EU<br>
cloud. Jon was told that if the dept of homeland security (or<br>
presumably any other agency that really wants to) asks for any data<br>
held by MSFT anywhere then it will be transferred to the US datacentre<br>
and handed over "no ifs, no buts."<br>
<br>
caveat emptor<br>
<br>
mike<br>
<br>
</blockquote></div><br>