Hybrid Cloud For Dummies

Talking to Your Cloud Provider About Data

In addition to issues surrounding security and privacy of your data as covered earlier in the chapter, we recommend talking with your potential vendor about the following issues because when your data leaves your premises in a cloud model, you need to ensure that the proper controls are in place to protect it:

Data integrity: What controls does your provider have in place to ensure that the integrity of your data is maintained? For example, are there controls in place to make sure that all data input to any system or application is complete, accurate, and reasonable? What about processing controls to make sure that data processing is accurate? Also, output controls need to be in place. This dovetails into any compliance issues that your particular industry might have.

Compliance: You are probably aware of any compliance issues particular to your industry. You need to make sure that your provider can comply with these regulations.

Loss of data: Your data is a precious asset. Key to any decision to go with a cloud provider is to find out what provisions are in the contract if the provider does something to your data. If the contract says simply ...