[FINAL] ● “​cloud computing service​” means a digital service that enables access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable computing resources; In order to assist the Competent Authority and Digital Service Providers in recognising when a DSP is in scope of this Directive the Government proposes to provide the following clarifications through Guidance: Online marketplaces ● An online marketplace should be defined as a platform that acts as an intermediary between buyers and sellers, facilitating the sale of goods or services, i.e. a service that enables consumers and traders to conclude online sales or service contracts with traders, and it represents the final destination for the conclusion of those contracts. ● Sites that redirect users to other services to make the final contract (e.g. price comparison sites), or that only connect buyers and sellers to trade with each other (e.g. classified advert sites), or that only sell directly to consumers on behalf of themselves (e.g. online retailers), are not in scope. Online search engines ● ‘online search engine’ means a digital service that allows users to perform searches of the ‘public parts of the worldwide web’ in a particular language on the basis of a query on any subject in the form of a keyword, phrase or other input, and returns links in which information related to the requested content can be found. ● Where a site offers search engine facilities as outlined above, but those facilities are powered by another search engine, then the underlying search engine is required to meet the requirements of the NIS Directive. Internal organisational search engines, that do not facilitate external searches of the internet are not in scope. Cloud computing services ● ‘cloud computing service’ means any Digital Service Provider that enables access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources. ● The Government considers that this primarily (but not exclusively) includes Digital Service Providers that provide public cloud services of the following nature: ● ● ● “‘Infrastructure as a Service’ (IaaS) - the delivery of virtualised computing resource as a service across a network connection, specifically hardware – or computing infrastructure - delivered as a service; ‘Platform as a Service’ (PaaS) - services that provide developers with environments on which they can build applications that are delivered over the internet, often through a web browser; and ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS), provided the resources available to the customer through that software are changeable in an elastic and scalable way. The Government considers that this would likely exclude most online gaming, entertainment or VOIP services, as the resources available to the user are not Page 14