Accountability Requirements in the Cloud Provider Chain

In order to be responsible stewards of other people’s data, cloud providers must be accountable for their data handling practices. The potential long provider chains in cloud computing introduce additional accountability challenges, with many stakeholders involved. Symmetry is very important in any requirements’ elicitation activity, since input from diverse stakeholders needs to be balanced. This article ventures to answer the question “How can one create an accountable cloud service?” by examining requirements which must be fulfilled to achieve an accountability-based approach, based on interaction with over 300 stakeholders.