Paper
Automated Performance Systems and Enforceability of Contracts: The Case of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure
Published 2020 · G. Jafari, Benedikt Schuppli
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Abstract
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is currently the largest cloud computing service provider and appears to have established an effective dominance, which together with its main market participant Microsoft Azure, amounts to more than half of the global market. With the introduction of additional services, namely blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) including Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB) and its centralised quantum ledger database (QLDB), AWS aims at integrating different distributed ledger technology (DLT) -based network infrastructures into its platform. Here, AWS utilises predominantly open source technologies such as Corda, Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum. BaaS is expected to experience accelerated growth, in particular in the light of the current crisis and governmental policies stimulating businesses to be run online. In the first part of the present paper, BaaS is defined as a distinct cloud computing service under the established EU and Swiss legal and regulatory regimes. A specific focus is given to the potential implications of current developments for a regulatory reform in the EU concerning information society service providers. In this context, BaaS in principle would fall under the category of a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud computing application. In addition, BaaS could be interpreted as constituting a subcategory of an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud computing application, implying that computing power and storage would be distributed among DLT network participants. Nevertheless, the core element of BaaS, i.e. the provision of a network infrastructure predominantly based on DLT, would give rise to novel questions related to the level of governance and control over the infrastructure, the network‟s decentralised applications, and more in particular smart contract code -based transaction finality through consensus protocols. In the second part
Blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) is a distinct cloud computing service under EU and Swiss legal regimes, with potential implications for regulatory reform in the EU concerning information society service providers.
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