How To Balance Risk In Cloud Contracts By Adopting Best Practice

The first of a two-parter that looks at how to minimise risk when moving to cloud.

Enthusiasm for cloud computing is undiminished with survey after survey showing that cloud adoption is significant. But, in their rush to embrace cloud, are customers taking on greater risks than they need to? And are cloud service providers seeking to exclude all risks when providing services?

The allocation of risk between a cloud service provider and its customer is done through the contract. A Cloud Industry Forum survey earlier this year indicated that 45 percent of customers were not offered the opportunity to negotiate contracts suggesting that cloud service providers are using standard contracts and click-through arrangements. Also, a third of customers reported that their cloud service providers could change the contract by simply posting a new version online. In some ways, the more revealing statistics are that many customers did not try to negotiate their contractual