Keith Broyles was quoted in an article on The Network blog that discussed the top three considerations small companies need to address before jumping onto the cloud computing bandwagon. Creating a migration plan, thinking about reliability and looking at legal issues were at the top of the list.
Broyles offered his expertise on the legal issues to consider:
“For starters, scrutinize the fine print,” Broyles suggested. “For example, a cloud provider may waive liability in case of lost data. Depending on your industry, you also may need to make sure you're compliant with regulations governing data. If, say, you operate in Europe or have European customers, you'll need to consider the EU's Data Protection Directive, which regulates the processing of personal data.”
“You also need to be aware of where your data will be hosted. The reason: If it will be on a server outside of the U.S. and there's a problem, depending on your contractual provisions, you could wind up not getting the benefit of U.S. laws," Broyles said.