Reading the fine print in your cloud computing SLA

Grazed from TechPageOne. Author: Lance Boley.

Cloud computing is seeing phenomenal growth. The benefits are enough to convince most businesses to make the switch. However, cloud computing is still in its infancy, and cloud contracts still have bugs that need to be addressed. This is particularly the case with solutions such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Businesses utilizing SaaS services are discovering loopholes concerning risk management, data confidentiality, data integrity and recovery. The results should serve as a friendly reminder to any business interested in the cloud: read your Service Level Agreement (SLA) thoroughly.

Alexa Bona, VP at Gartner, mentioned in a statement that “We continue to see frustration among cloud services users over the form and degree of transparency they are able to obtain from prospective and current service providers.” As with all other legal contracts, not knowing is not an excuse. Signing your name on the dotted line makes any document legally binding, and it is assumed that you have done so after reading it. Cloud computing contracts need to be transparent to alleviate users’ concerns. According to research by Gartner, they are often found to be lacking – especially when it comes to data confidentiality, integrity and recovery…

Since cloud computing is a relatively new technology, consumers haven’t yet decided upon what levels of service to expect, and in what areas. Most SaaS providers have used this scenario to their advantage by making minimal commitments. Users should negotiate as much as possible to get the best deal. So what do you need to look for in a contract before committing ? Here are a few areas that may need attention:…

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