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20 I Why Ireland? A guide to doing business in Ireland I ByrneWallaceconsumers. The Distance SellingDirective provides that certain priorinformation must be supplied by thesupplier and it also provides details ofthe cooling off period and confirmationof the contract terms. The requirementsof the Electronic Commerce Regulationsand the Distance Selling Directive canbe met by having appropriately draftedterms and conditions.CLOUD COMPUTINGIreland is home to a high concentrationof data centres through whichtechnology giants such as Microsoft,Vodafone, Google, EMC, Yahoo! andAmazon Web Services drive most oftheir traffic and host the majority oftheir services for Europe. The key factorfor choosing to locate here is Ireland’sambient climate which means thatmany data centres do not have to usetheir cooling equipment for much ofthe year, which results in a substantialsaving for the data centre owners. Otherinfluential factors are Ireland’s geologicalstability, proximity to high-speed fibreoptic communications networks andaffordable energy rates. As a resultIreland is ideally placed as a Europeanbase for cloud computing activities ofcompanies.Data Protection and Data SecurityTwo of the most important issues arisingfrom the fact that cloud computingtranscends national borders concerncompliance with national data protectionlaws and the security of the data that isplaced in the cloud. As detailed abovethere is a well established body of lawat European and domestic level settingout the data protection obligations ofcompanies in relation to personal datathey control and process. Generally thecustomer will be responsible forcompliance with the Data ProtectionActs (as the data controller), but shouldensure that:• the supplier takes appropriatetechnical and organisationalmeasures to protect the data and tokeep it secure;• the contract with the supplierincludes appropriate termscontrolling what the supplier mayand may not do in respect of thedata; and• any transfer of data outside the EEAis dealt with appropriately.Where the cloud computing modelinvolves passing personal data to athird party, the Data Protection Actsprohibit companies from doing sounless there are adequate measures inplace to protect personal data. Manydata centres that are used to hostservices are located outside the EEAand as mentioned above personal datacannot be transferred outside of theEEA unless strict conditions are met.Many international cloud computingservice providers are now publicisingtheir moves to establish data centreswithin Ireland because the onus on thecustomer to comply with data protectionlegislation is reduced.Other legal issues with regard to cloudcomputing which need to be addressedare data security, liability for servicefailure, licensing issues, jurisdictionalissues and the ability to recover datastored or processed in the cloud.