Leading-Edge Law: Consider the legal effort required to move to the cloud

http://ow.ly/76RXi

An article by John B. Farmer published on the Richmond Times-Dispatch and on the 2timesdispatch.com website.

This article discusses the desire to move to a "Cloud Computing" model and offers businesses some items to consider prior to making such a move.

The article provides some insight into various computing models that can be said to be "Cloud" models.  In addition the author offers the following advice, "...here are a few issues that I recommend business owners keep an eye on when having their lawyers negotiate a cloud-services agreement:

• What is the minimally acceptable level of uptime functionality for your computing system, and when it will be down for scheduled maintenance?
• What support will you get for technical failures, and what about help-desk support for confused users?
• Data security and confidentiality terms must be carefully crafted, including (i) limiting the geographic locations where data may be stored, (ii) requiring the cloud provider to comply with data-security laws, and (iii) addressing who pays the cost of dealing with any data-security breaches.
• Make certain you have adequate legal rights to use the software in the cloud in the ways you may need to use it.
• You may later want or need to switch cloud providers or to take functions back in-house, so the contract needs to provide for how you can take your data (and perhaps your software) in a usable format as quickly as you need and without major obstacles."