Businesses considering moving data to the public cloud should do their homework before signing a contract.

First, you’ll need to determine your needs are. If your user community is internal only and no one needs access to your systems externally, you might be better off operating your own data center in a dedicated computer room in your facility. In those cases it is best not to connect those servers to the Internet and risk a security breach.

Should you determine public cloud storage is an option, ask the prospective provider how many sets of hardware comprise the server and infrastructure – the redundancy I mentioned. For instance, our company is at a redundancy level of “6+2,”  meaning every device is hot redundant six times, plus two cold state redundancies that are off line and not connected to the same power source but ready for data should circumstances warrant.

Next, check if the provider offers intrusion detection and protection, to guard against hackers. A provider’s firewalls should be set at maximum security levels.

Finally, confirm the provider meets Service Organization Control SOC 1 and SOC 2 requirements for internal financial integrity and operations procedure controls. Ideally, the firm also should comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI) for companies that process, store or transmit credit card information.

We’re living in an exciting, and rapidly changing, time for computing. Cloud computing has come a long way in a very short time. Many of us already are using the cloud and might not realize it. If you’ve recently purchased Microsoft or Intuit software you may have noticed the process is different. Instead of purchasing software and loading it onto your computer you likely were asked to pay a subscription fee that allows you to use the software on an as-needed basis. What you probably didn’t know was the software resides on Microsoft’s and Intuit’s public clouds.

We’ve only just begun with cloud computing, but the future looks promising both for business and consumer alike.