Cloud Computing has become one of the most inevitable turnkey technologies across various industry sectors. However, amidst opportunities for innovation through digital transformation, there remain concerns related to legal and regulatory aspects on adoption of these transformational technologies. Addressing the same, in continuation to the knowledge series on Cloud Computing, Microsoft in partnership with Lex Witness recently concluded its debut edition on The Meeting of Minds – A General Counsel’s Walk In The Clouds and the second and third editions of Cloud for Lawyers – A Special Edition for Law Firms in Mumbai and Bengaluru. Here’s an overview of the events.
On September 14, 2017, 2017 the city’s finest general counsel gathered at The Hilton Hotel for the debut edition of the said initiative. The meeting was well attended by country’s leading in housel counsel based out of Bengaluru. A total of 11 in house counsel representations spanned out of 9 different multi nationals from sectors like ecommerce, IT ITES, FMCG, Pharmaceutical & Lifesciences, Payment Banks, and Beverages like industry sectors. These in house counsel represented various legal functions like IPR, Risk & Compliance, and Data Privacy etc. as their responsibility areas in their respective organizations.
Globally, organizations are adopting infrastructure on cloud platforms for increasingly critical workloads, citing an improved business agility, global scale and cost savings as the key benefits. In India, the journey has begun with an exciting start and firms are evolving in their approach towards adoption of cloud based technologies, keeping in consideration the nascent state of the cloud computing industry. Organizations have certain perceived concerns towards governance and compliance risk, contracts/SLA transparency, interoperability, lock-in, loss of control, data sovereignty, amongst others relating to adoption of the Cloud. With the increased demand for digitally enabled channels from end customers, the information technology needs for companies have substantially increased, demanding scalability and speed along with reliability and trust. In recent years, driven by the compelling business and economic benefits, financial institutions and banks are drawn towards innovative options available and developing cloud adoption strategies.
Based on research carried out by the International Data Corporation (IDC) and addressing some of the key myths and concerns that surrounded cloud adoption by banks and financial institutions in India Security emerged as the #1 factor towards trusted cloud adoption followed by privacy. Keeping such concerns in mind, the themes for the Meeting of Minds discussion were:
Security and Privacy: Security and Privacy are the major driving force for banks and financial institutions to choose the right Cloud Solution Provider (CSP). Depending on the degree of security requirements, institutions can choose from four cloud deployment models – public, private, community and hybrid. Financial Institutions and Banks need to ensure that the CSP has well defined security model with clear policies on Who Owns the Data, Who Controls the Data and Manages the Data between bank and the CSP. The CSP should also hold compliances towards both international and industry specific standards. The most pivotal aspect of selecting the right CSP also relies on their breach assumption policies. These elements are the most critical in defining the cloud landscape for an organization
Regulatory Compliance: In a highly regulated yet evolving landscape, Banks and financial institutions are governed by national sometimes global needs to satisfy availability, confidentiality, and integrity of data. This mandates banking and financial institutions to adhere requirements under the regulatory landscape such as Data residency, Audit and Data sovereignty
During the discussions with the GCs and in house counsels, the following deliberations were made on: Migrating on to The Cloud – Legal, Regulatory Aspects Involved | Business Case Vs. Intended Use of Service | Service Access | Business Criticality of the Service Practical consequences if the service is down or degraded for any period of time | Use of Service & Possible Changes | Defining availability, planned outages, critical and noncritical outages, service credits and termination rights | Breach of the SLA is a service credit | Window dressing or actually a meaningful economic remedy | Termination or suspension of service | Representations and warranties; indemnities | Confidentiality clauses | Multi-jurisdictional aspects | Commercial & Other Issues
September 14 and 15, 2017 senior partners from country’s top law firms attended the 2nd and 3rd editions of the Cloud for Lawyers Cloud Computing Knowledge series. This editions witnessed a total of 98 attendees from about 64 firms including law firms, consulting firms and other professional setups in the legal services space. These were firms primarily based out of Bengaluru that specializes in practice areas pertaining to IPR, Data Protection, TMT, and Copyright etc. While there were a mix of Sr. Partners, Partners, Associate Partners and Sr. Associates etc. the event also saw attendance from Managing & Founding Partners of firms.
India Inc. is all geared up towards making Digital India a dream come true. Virtually, all business sectors today are poised to bring in the best of technological benchmarks to keep pace with the dynamic customer expectations and the cut throat competition that exists today. Amongst many others, Cloud Computing is one of the top of the check points today. It not only brings down infrastructure costs but empowers business functions with advantages like flexibility, agility and other advantages like Scope for Innovation, Scalability etc.
Is it time that the legal legal community changes its strategies and plans in advancement towards cloud computing?
The legal professionals must keep abreast of the latest technological advancements to be able to support its clients in their adoption of the latest innovation in technologies. This is fundamental for lawyers in order to provide advisories to their clients from a legal perspective, on adoption of the cloud.
Are there any legal & regulatory aspects to be kept in mind while opting for a cloud based approach?
There are areas of Legal, Regulatory, Security, Compliance and Risk management that needs to be addressed with utmost domain knowledge expertise and pro-business outlook. In particular, understanding the obligations and risks around data confidentiality, privacy, security, breach as well as compliance. This becomes even more critical for the legal professionals, keeping in mind both its roles as an advisor and as a custodian Given the above need and content, the two events aimed at deliberating on the power of the Cloud as a technology innovator with key focus on aspects of regulatory policy, legal frameworks and challenges of adoption of the cloud.
Inaugural Address – Role of Legal Advisory in driving India Inc. to the Cloud as an Innovation – Dr. Lalit Bhasin, President, Bar Association of India and Society of Indian Law Firms
Keynote Address – A General Counsel’s Walk in The Cloud – Concerns, Challenges, Efficiency Vs. Compromise on Privacy, Technological Innovation & Cloud – Ugen Bhutia, Executive Vice President – Legal Head, SBI Card (SBI+GE)
Focused Session – Indian Firms as Advisors on and Users of Cloud Computing – A Regulatory Overview and What to Demand from the Service Providers (Adoption Landscape, Indian Regulatory Framework, Challenges and Opportunities) – Nitza Agrait Vilá, Commercial Legal Lead, Microsoft India
Focused Session – What is the Cloud – The technologies and the advances, including its Architecture, its Capabilities, and Data – Anish Chandy, Senior Solution Sales Manager, Microsoft India and Chakrapani Dasika, Senior Solution Sales Manager, Microsoft India
Workshop on Cloud – Legal and Regulatory Issues for India Inc. – Aditi Chopra, Director and Legal Counsel Microsoft India and Kavitha Babu, Director & Commercial Attorney Microsoft India
The audience expressed keen interest in attending more of such educational and awareness driven sessions for them to further understand the legal and regulatory aspects around cloud as a platform. The in house counsel from Mumbai and New Delhi look forward to the roundtable formats as they could not attend the Bangalore editions. The legal fraternity of course expects it to be an annual edition which will be replicated as a series in 2018.
www.grandmasters.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.rcls.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.itlegalsummit.com | 8 Years & Counting
www.bfls.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.maels.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.plcs.co.in | 8 Years & Counting
Copyright © 2020 Lex Witness - India's 1st Magazine on Legal & Corporate Affairs Rights of Admission Reserved
