Cloud computing can bring many benefits to an organization, with these benefits falling into several distinct categories:

– Virtualization – The ability to increase computing efficiency
– Democratization of Computing – Bringing enterprise scale infrastructure to small and medium businesses
– Scalability and fast provisioning – Bringing web scale IT at a rapid pace
– Commoditization of infrastructure – Enabling IT to focus on the strategic aspects of its role

These individual benefits combine to produce a shift that we believe is revolutionary and will have a permanent impact on organizations.

Given the fundamental shift that Cloud Computing offers, organizations are naturally worried about the potential risks from a move to the Cloud. This paper identifies the three key areas that organizations need to look into. The first of these areas is the technical considerations related to Cloud Computing.