Many businesses are moving their data from on-site storage solutions to cloud storage. There are a wide range of benefits in doing so, from the cost to freeing up space, but with this in mind, here are some important things to take into consideration.

One of the first things businesses need to do is determine who is responsible for the data stored on the cloud. Normally, although the data is stored on servers in data centres owned by the provider, responsibility for the data remains with the customer. Another thing to bear in mind is where the data is physically stored – this can have legal ramifications due to data falling under the jurisdiction of the country it’s physically stored in.

Another concern is reliability. Even a short amount of downtime has the potential to cost your business money. It’s important to understand how much downtime you can expect in an average month. Even good deals, like 99.9% reliability, still leaves you with hours of downtime a year, so try and go for a package that offers closer to 100%.

The cloud, while largely safe, has gained a bad reputation of late due to poor password security, as well as weak security questions. If sensitive information is being stored on the servers, especially if your business is ISO 27001 certified, security is even more paramount. A good cloud storage provider will be able to offer security more secure than on-site solutions. You also need to look at the level of support available to you, and many businesses rely on expert support from their cloud storage provider.