By Stuart Hibbert

The concept of charging for computing power or access to applications just like a utility is nothing new – it was first conceived back in the early sixties by John McCarthy (forefather of Artificial Intelligence). The Cloud will provision and scale computing power on demand in a cost efficient way, without the need to manage the underlying complexity of the technology. You only pay for what you use – you will see a reduction in upfront capital expenditure and ongoing management costs normally attributed with IT.

The Cloud is still evolving and at this time there are ‘no’ adopted standards by which providers are conducting themselves, instead it is more akin to the wild west, whereby everyone is trying to grab as much land as they can, which is likely to be to the cost of their customers. Until such time as standards are adopted there are a few things which you consider before jumping in.

Can you trust someone else with your company’s data (customer information, legal documents, intellectual property, trade secrets, etc.)? Check that your cloud provider is registered as a data processor under the Data Protection Act (EU equivalent or US Safe Harbour) – meaning that they are just processing the data on your behalf and that the data remains your property. You have obligations under data protection regulations to ensure the security of your data and that it is not transferred to other countries without adequate protection and register disclosure – so you need to know that your data will remain confidential, that there are systems and processes in place to ensure your data is being managed and protected (like backup and disaster recovery) and of course where your data is being held.

You need to ensure that you have access to your data and applications when you need it – you don’t want your employees left twiddling their thumbs because they can’t get access. Most of the current providers only provide their services on an “as-is” basis so you could be left high and dry if they have problems. Push the provider to give you with a Service Level Agreement – this will specify their minimum levels of service and typically compensation should they fail to deliver this. Take a look at your internal networks to ensure that you have sufficient internet bandwidth to cope with the increased demands due to use of cloud services and that you don’t rely on a single internet provider (small offices could look at mobile based 3G broadband solutions as a cost effective alternative).

Most providers will tell you how easy it is to start using cloud services – but you also need to know how costly it could be to get out. Without standards moving from one cloud to another could prove to be difficult. Providers, like Microsoft, are starting to address this by allowing movement from its public cloud to your own internal cloud using their new Azure service/servers. If you are creating your own bespoke cloud applications, make sure that they are designed to allow you to move providers if you so wish by abstracting any proprietary interfaces, which will make it easier to switch at a later date. If you plan to make use of a cloud based application – then make sure you can get your data back.

The good news is that as cloud computing becomes more popular, standards will emerge and many of the issues above will disappear. For now, however, the most important thing is to be aware of the associated risks and to plan in accordance.

About the author

Stuart Hibbert is CEO of icomplete.com an innovative new online cloud service which is aimed at small businesses. www.icomplete.com.