34
their businesses with near-total dependency on a small number of large
cloud ecosystems where the underlying CSP holds disproportionate bargaining power and data. The degree of trust involved is near total. Similarly,
where clients or end users suggest or actually implement improvements or
bug fixes, it may not be clear where IP ownership lies (Leimbach
et al. 2014).
2.4.7
Termination
Contracts may come to a natural and expected conclusion, or be unnaturally terminated due to breach of contract or some other event rendering
them invalid. On termination, the contract should make adequate provision for the consequent handling of the client data including defining the
term of service and (non-) renewal of service; termination events; data
preservation; data deletion; and data transfer, following termination
(Leimbach et al. 2014). The treatment of termination has legal and economic implications. CSPs can use data preservation, in particular, as a
means of vendor lock-in by making data transfer to another service timeconsuming or cumbersome. In the event of unnatural termination, clients
will want to ensure that they have adequate time to access their data and
transfer their data from the incumbent CSP to an alternative. At the end
of a service contract, CSPs may (1) immediately delete the data, (2) provide a grace period, or (3) offer a hybrid approach neither obliging the
deletion nor preservation of data, nor undertaking to delete data and
offering a grace period at their discretion (Bradshaw et al. 2011). In reality, few CSPs delete the data on termination. However against the backdrop of data protection legislation, deleting personal data as soon as
possible may be prudent to mitigate GDPR-related risk. At the same time,
Hon and Millard (2018) have suggested that regulators are seeking maximum periods after which personal data must be deleted.
Leimbach et al. (2014) also note that clients should understand what
happens to metadata relating to their account on termination; this issue
would seem to be contentious not only from a termination perspective but
also from an ownership perspective and is worthy of attention by cloud
clients. As discussed above, the line between the metadata that a CSP reasonable owns and that which the client owns can be blurry and ownership
uncertain. A CSP generates, stores, analyses and may replicate system and
network usage, data transfer and other logs as part of the activities inherent in the delivery and future development of the service. It may not be
T. LYNN
their businesses with near-total dependency on a small number of large
cloud ecosystems where the underlying CSP holds disproportionate bargaining power and data. The degree of trust involved is near total. Similarly,
where clients or end users suggest or actually implement improvements or
bug fixes, it may not be clear where IP ownership lies (Leimbach
et al. 2014).
2.4.7
Termination
Contracts may come to a natural and expected conclusion, or be unnaturally terminated due to breach of contract or some other event rendering
them invalid. On termination, the contract should make adequate provision for the consequent handling of the client data including defining the
term of service and (non-) renewal of service; termination events; data
preservation; data deletion; and data transfer, following termination
(Leimbach et al. 2014). The treatment of termination has legal and economic implications. CSPs can use data preservation, in particular, as a
means of vendor lock-in by making data transfer to another service timeconsuming or cumbersome. In the event of unnatural termination, clients
will want to ensure that they have adequate time to access their data and
transfer their data from the incumbent CSP to an alternative. At the end
of a service contract, CSPs may (1) immediately delete the data, (2) provide a grace period, or (3) offer a hybrid approach neither obliging the
deletion nor preservation of data, nor undertaking to delete data and
offering a grace period at their discretion (Bradshaw et al. 2011). In reality, few CSPs delete the data on termination. However against the backdrop of data protection legislation, deleting personal data as soon as
possible may be prudent to mitigate GDPR-related risk. At the same time,
Hon and Millard (2018) have suggested that regulators are seeking maximum periods after which personal data must be deleted.
Leimbach et al. (2014) also note that clients should understand what
happens to metadata relating to their account on termination; this issue
would seem to be contentious not only from a termination perspective but
also from an ownership perspective and is worthy of attention by cloud
clients. As discussed above, the line between the metadata that a CSP reasonable owns and that which the client owns can be blurry and ownership
uncertain. A CSP generates, stores, analyses and may replicate system and
network usage, data transfer and other logs as part of the activities inherent in the delivery and future development of the service. It may not be
T. LYNN