Economies of scale, flexibility and cost reduction – cloud advocates have made sure that we are familiar with these potential benefits, even if we have yet to agree on an exact definition of cloud computing. But doubters argue that none of these benefits will actually be available unless some fundamental security issues can be overcome.

These issues are often presented as if they constituted an insurmountable barrier to cloud adoption, but is that really the case? Is there that much difference between security in the cloud compared to security in, say, an outsource contract? After all clients, have been entrusting their data to third parties under outsource contracts for many years now and the basics of security and control are the same.