Cloud Computing Versus Card – An SPA Position Paper – November 2013

In this paper SPA provides an opinion on present and future trends for retail payments based on a comparison between the use of hardware-based card solutions and software-Cloud retail payment solutions, and their respective pro‘s and con’s.

The idea of storing personal data in a “Cloud” ubiquitously accessible and potentially shareable by authorized person is no doubt an appealing one. Now it remains the question of whether the technology is suitable for the storage and access of any type of data. For retail payments services, the question SPA explores is whether the Cloud constitutes a short-term realistic alternative to the card technology or whether the coexistence of both technologies constitutes a preferable option.