handbook-tb

Protecting the tax base in the digital economyon a single computer, but instead on many networked computers thatare available to everyone who has access to that “cloud” of computingresources. Cloud computing often provides customers with acost-effective alternative to purchasing and maintaining their own ITinfrastructure, because the cost of the consumer resources is generallyshared among a wider user base. 56Dematerialization in the digital economy does not, however,mean that everything is virtual. Human beings remain important asproducers and consumers. Physical delivery of tangible goods remainsa significant part of e-commerce. Also, some people may still wantto test products before ordering online. However, the proportion ofe-commerce involving “intangibles” or “digitized goods and services”is rising.3.3.2 Connectivity and mobilityThe Internet virtually connects everybody who has access to it usinga computer or mobile device. Such connectivity diminishes therelevance of distance or physical barriers. Digitized information and56OECD, Action 1 — 2014 Deliverable, supra note 3, at 80-1, describes thefollowing as the most common examples of cloud-computing-services models:Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers offer computers — physicalor (more often) virtual machines — and other fundamental computingresources. Platform-as-a-Service providers provide a computing platformand programming tools as a service for software developers. Softwareresources provided by the platform are embedded in the code of softwareapplications meant to be used by end users. The client does not control ormanage the underlying cloud infrastructure, including the network, servers,operating systems or storage, but has control over the deployed applications.Software-as-a-Service providers allow the user to access an application fromvarious devices through a client interface such as a web browser (for example,web-based email). Content-as-a-Service: where rights are obtained and softwareis provided to allow content to be embedded by purchasers, content canbe purchased as a service. Data-as-a-Service: data from multiple sources canbe aggregated and managed by a service provider, so that controlled access tothat data can be granted to entities that may be geographically and organizationallyremoved from each other, without each entity needing to develop oracquire the infrastructure necessary to prepare and process that data.425