High-tech storage raises questions

The innovation to store emails, business records and even government files in computer warehouses often far away — and access the data over the Internet — has triggered great innovations and, in Washington, complex policy challenges.

And as more consumers, businesses and federal agencies begin to rely on cloud computing to make accessing data less costly and more convenient, it will be up to Congress to upgrade analog rules that never anticipated a innovation akin to a bottomless file cabinet in the ether.

Slew of new bills to protect the privacy

Lawmakers are considering a slew of new bills to protect the privacy and security of data floating in the cloud. Cloud providers believe those efforts could encourage the adoption of cloud research, however the laws they seek may not come so easily at a time when Congress is nearly wholly focused on the budget.

"Cloud computing can be a significant catalyst for productivity improvements, efficiencies usually, as then as financial savings — both for the country and companies that take advantage of it," said Dean Garfield, president of the Information Innovation Industry Council, which represents a broad swath of the tech sector.

The debate is over the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a statute written in 1986, long earlier most consumers had migrated essential services and information online. Even tech companies often at political loggerheads — including Microsoft and Google — said an upgrade to the law is critical to the development of the cloud industry.