Cloud computing is a part of information technology of IT. It helps to allow access to several configurable resources like applications, computer networks, servers, services and storage (Zissis & Lekkas, 2012). The main advantage of cloud computing is that it can easily arranged with less effort of management. The benefits of cloud computing include cost effectiveness, reliability. The disadvantages of cloud computing include lack of security, vulnerable and downtime. The essay outlines a brief discussion on the famous case study of cloud computing that took place in Europe in the year 2010 (Niebuhr, 2013). The case study is described using the four classical theories of ethics, which include the utilitarianism theory, deontology theory, virtue theory and contract theory. The essay further provides proper justifications for the case study with details.
Cloud computing is one of the most advanced technologies in modern world. It helps to enable several configurable resources like applications, computer networks, servers, services and storage (Hashizume et al., 2013). In the year 2010, cloud computing was responsible for the drawback and limitations in the technology in Europe. The government of Europe wanted to protect Europe from cyber terrorists and cyber criminals. There is always a chance of cyber threat in case of free flow of data. Since cloud computing has always an issue with security and privacy, the government applied various restrictions in Europe for cloud computing (O’Brien, 2017). The problem that was raised due to this was the slowing down of all the processes in comparison with the United States. In the United States, the government enables the organizations to utilize cloud computing under legal system. The overall sales of the cloud services were approximately 102.1 billion dollars by the year of 2012 for United States. However, in Europe the number was only 18 billion dollars. For the legal obstacles in Europe, the important organizations of the United States have to make the limitations loose enough for transferring the data. The researchers at the HP labs in England are trying to make ways for encrypting the data before sending to the cloud and then decrypting it after leaving it to the cloud. The second problem in the cloud of Europe is the European Data Privacy Directive (O’Brien, 2017). It disallows any type of European Union data to move outside the borders of Europe. Only few countries like the United States, Canada and Argentina are allowed to provide cloud services.
The problems mentioned above were not at all illegal, however when they are observed with respect to ethics, it is considered as unethical. European government was just trying to protect its countries from any sort of data and security breaches. Here, the question is about being ethical and non-ethical. The above case study needs to fulfill the requirement of the four classical theories of ethics (Crimmins, 2017). The first theory is the utilitarianism theory. According to this theory, the action that provides maximum utility and can maximize the utility of a situation can be considered as the best activity. This means, the total satisfaction gained from a utility after eliminating the trouble of the individual, involved in the activity. The assumptions that are made on the utilitarianism theory are the total and average utilitarianism. It depends how much utility the situation or case study is obtaining from the activity. In this particular case study, the European government is stopping the entrance of data in the cloud due to security reasons (Arntzenius, 2014). They are not allowing the European Union to send and receive data to the cloud. This is in case slowing down the process and preventing the utility to be maximized. Therefore, it can be claimed as unethical in terms of utilitarianism theory.
The second classical theory of ethics is the Deontology Theory. According to this theory, any decision that is to be taken by an individual should be based on the morality of any activity (Lazar, 2017). This particular theory states that all ethics are based on several duties and obligations. The main motivation to do a job comes from the moral obligation. The external and the internal sources are responsible for such obligations. According to the Deontology theory, an individual must be ethical by his moral under every circumstance (Dewey, 2016). The internal sources include the personal and the cultural values. An individual’s character is based on the internal sources that are how the internal sources have affected the individual. The external sources are those sources, which include all kinds of legal rules, universal and religious laws (Chen & Schonger, 2017). In this case study, the European government cannot be claimed as unethical as they were performing their duties. They did whatever they felt were right. This is not unethical according to the deontology theory.
The third classical theory of ethics is the Virtue Theory (Audi, 2012). According to the virtue ethics, the decision and the thoughts that a person has completely depends on his character. If he has a good and ethical character, he is bound to take ethical decisions. However, if the person does not bear a good character, he will have such thoughts that are negative and will take up such decisions, which will have a negative impact on the society and the surrounding. The thoughts of a person is absolutely controlled by him (Van Hooft, 2014). In this case study of cloud computing, this particular case study does not apply.
The final theory of classical theory of ethics is the Contract Ethics (Fried, 2015). According to the contract ethics, the morality of the values of a person is completely dependent on a contract. This contract helps to take out the moral rules and ethical laws of a person. This theory of ethics is not applicable to this particular case study of cloud computing. There is no contract present in this case study (Dewey, 2016). Therefore, it cannot be said that the case study is ethical or not.
European government took a decision to protect the security level of the data. It slowed down the entire process. Taking into consideration of both the positive and negative impacts of the case study, I would recommend that the European government should allow some more countries to send and receive data from Europe. Security is good for any country; however, excess security would be harmful and degradable for the country. For security purpose, I would recommend that they should keep a special squad, who can look into the matter of any kind of breaches. The contract theory and the virtue theory do not apply to this case study. The deontology theory proves this case study to be ethical, but utilitarianism theory proves it as unethical.
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, cloud computing is one of the most advanced technologies in modern world. It helps to enable several configurable resources like applications, computer networks, servers, services and storage. Cloud computing enables the users for data processing either on a third party server or in a privately owned cloud. The main advantage of cloud computing is that it can easily arranged with less effort of management. The benefits of cloud computing include cost effectiveness, reliability, such vast advantages, cloud computing do have some disadvantages. The disadvantages of cloud computing include lack of security, vulnerable and downtime. The above essay focuses on the drawback and degradation of European cloud case study that took place in the year 2010 due to the excess security of the European government. The case study is well justified with the four theories of ethics, namely the utilitarianism theory, the deontology theory, the virtue theory and the contract theory. The contract and virtue theories are not applicable to this case study. The utilitarianism theory proves that the case study is unethical however, the deontology theory proves the case study to be ethical.
References:
Arntzenius, F. (2014). Utilitarianism, decision theory and eternity. Philosophical Perspectives, 28(1), 31-58.
Audi, R. (2012). Virtue ethics as a resource in business. Business Ethics Quarterly, 22(2), 273-291.
Chen, D. L., & Schonger, M. (2017). Social preferences or sacred values? theory and evidence of deontological motivations.
Crimmins, J. E. (Ed.). (2017). The Bloomsbury encyclopedia of utilitarianism. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Dewey, J. (2016). Ethics. Read Books Ltd.
Fried, C. (2015). Contract as promise: A theory of contractual obligation. Oxford University Press, USA.
Hashizume, K., Rosado, D. G., Fernández-Medina, E., & Fernandez, E. B. (2013). An analysis of security issues for cloud computing. Journal of Internet Services and Applications, 4(1), 5.
Lazar, S. (2017). Deontological Decision Theory and Agent-Centered Options. Ethics, 127(3), 579-609.
Niebuhr, R. (2013). Moral man and immoral society: A study in ethics and politics. Westminster John Knox Press.
O’Brien, K. (2017). Cloud Computing Hits Snag in Europe. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 16 September 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/technology/20cloud.html?hpw
Van Hooft, S. (2014). Understanding virtue ethics. Routledge.
Zissis, D., & Lekkas, D. (2012). Addressing cloud computing security issues. Future Generation computer systems, 28(3), 583-592.
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