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The cloud over ‘cloud computing’

Published: 20 Aug. 2014, 18:46

As I woke up and opened my eyes in the morning, the ubiquitous home system detects my biorhythm and brain waves and opens the curtain to let the morning light in. I get ready to go out and stand in front of a multi-screen, where a “virtual closet” program recommends the outfits suitable for today’s weather. I get on the smart car, which automatically uses big data on the traffic condition of the day and time as well as the local map and finds the best route. I don’t need to pay attention to driving on my driverless car. At the meeting, the real-time translation system provides automatic translation and interpretation for various languages. This will be a typical morning in the near future.

Most of these technologies are already commercialized or are very close. In the past several decades, Korea’s growth had been driven by conglomerate-oriented economic policies and a fast-follower system, but it has been confronted by its limits for nearly 20 years. The Park Geun-hye administration has acknowledged the limits and established the Ministry of Science, ITC and Future Planning as the ICT control tower, promoting the “creative economy” for the future.

However, here, we must not overlook one thing. In order to realize the aforementioned technologies, an infrastructure of “cloud computing” that allows flexible usage of remote IT resources is necessary. Without the cloud, Internet of Things or big data are not possible. And without Internet of Things and big data, creative economy is not attainable. Therefore, pursuing creative economy without the infrastructure of cloud is an empty slogan.

The June National Assembly session ended on July 17. Regrettably, the bill on the cloud computing development and protection of the users failed to be passed. The politicians need to take responsibilities and make sure to process the cloud bill.

BY Jeong Gwan-young, Attorney at law at Jeongyul Law Corp.