CITC publishes study on legislative & regulatory status of cloud computing worldwide

CITC publishes study on legislative & regulatory status of cloud computing worldwide

RIYADH — The Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) released a study, outlining the legislative and regulatory status of cloud computing at a global level.This study, which benchmarks Saudi Arabia against ten other countries and regions, comes at a crucial time given the global trend towards digitalization and data usage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the recent announcements that Google and Alibaba will work with Saudi entities to create cloud networks in the Kingdom.Cloud computing will play a role in building the new digital economy and healthy competition, facilitated by proper regulation, will encourage innovation. The study mentions a tech innovation “arms race” — a result of intense competition between major cloud service providers — which has helped foster a better technology ecosystem to the benefit of partners, enterprises, and consumers.Of the countries surveyed, Saudi Arabia is one of the earliest to adopt specific regulations for cloud service providers.The Cloud Computing Regulatory Framework (CCRF), produced by CITC, clearly describes the governance of responsibility between service providers and the customer. In addition,