The Cloud:
The Cloud refers to a data centre with servers and network equipment run by a third-party company. The Cloud is generally separated into three major categories, but with technology and companies wanting to be the latest and greatest, there is other terms that might be thrown around to describe their services.
Our website is hosted in the Meet Modern Inc. datacentre where we have access to the virtual server that the web application runs on, but we don’t manage it. In this case, we are utilizing a Platform as a Service (PaaS) Cloud.
Terminology:
IaaS
Infrastructure as a Service
When systems are hosted in the cloud.
Azure, OracleCI, AWS
SaaS
Software as a Service
When software is hosted in the cloud.
Gmail, Dropbox, Wix
PaaS
Platform as a Service
When a platform is hosted in the cloud.
Azure Kubenetes, AWS Lambda, WordPress.com
Location:
When considering utilising a Cloud Service, one the simplest ways to figure out how private it will be is simply it’s location. Location determines which laws the cloud provider has to follow, despite who is utilising it. For example:
If your Cloud provider is in Canada, as ours is, it must follow the Canadian Government's privacy laws.
There is some exceptions to this in regards to European laws like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Laws – these are in affect if you want your service to accessed by European citizens. – Read More: https://gdpr-info.eu/
Location
The 5 / 9 / 14 eyes Alliance is a coalition of intelligence sharing between these countries’. A major factor to consider when choosing a service and where it is hosted.