Russell Henley

Maidenhead

Managing Director

It's a perfectly understandable standpoint to take when the whole IT industry is terrified of data theft.

The whole concept of cloud computing takes your data and puts it on someone else's web servers in a data centre that you haven't specified. Some cloud computing companies may be using SAS70 accredited data centres with the necessary security features, some may be in a leaky shed under a motorway flyover.

The main issues with this are:
1) You lose control of your data - this may be less of an issue for some types of data than others
2) You are screwed if the cloud provider goes under - and may have serious issues getting your data back
3) You have no control over the infrastructure provided and are reliant on the cloud provider to ensure you have adequate storage, backup, processing power and bandwidth - all of which cost money and cut into the bottom line of the cloud provider!
4) You also may have to deal with international boundary issues (what if your data is held in another country - who's data protection laws (if any) apply?).

The concept is wonderful, and for certain markets there is a definite appeal, but not every application works in a cloud environment.

It should be clear to any IT department that any application for which cloud computing is an option should have it's pros and cons weighed up accurately.