By Michael Boughey
Hurricane Sandy provided the ultimate opportunity to test how cloud services fare in disasters, and reports indicate that cloud services held up well.
The US Government's 'cloud first' policy paid off, with the General Services Administration announcing that its cloud-based email, collaboration and business systems operated effectively throughout the event.
We have more than our own share of natural disasters in Australia, so avoid legal disasters by checking how your cloud service contract deals with the issues below.
'Disaster' means different things to different people
There is no one-size-fits-all definition of 'disaster'. The trigger for disaster recovery and business continuity measures should take into account the level of downtime your business can tolerate. For a system that processes a dozen transactions a day, a one-hour outage may be an inconvenience. For a system that processes thousands of transactions a day, it may be a disaster.
Whose disaster?
Your contract should deal with disasters affecting your own premises as well as your cloud service provider. This will ensure you get the full benefits of cloud computing – unlike some New York businesses, whose own backup data centres were located in the same hurricane-devastated city.
What will the provider actually do? How do you know the solution will work?
Have you reviewed the provider's procedures and included them in the contract? The contract should require regular testing, dry runs and reporting, including when you make changes to your own system.
Where will your data go?
If you care where your data is usually held for security and privacy purposes, it's just as important to know where it will be backed up or transferred in case of a disaster – particularly when privacy legislation restricts cross-border transfers.
What if disaster recovery fails?
Standard exclusion of liability clauses can leave you with little or no recourse against the provider. Providers may try to exclude liability for loss of data and rely on standard 'force majeure' clauses excluding liability in case of fire, flood, earthquakes and more. These provisions should be challenged.
What Hynes Lawyers can do
Our lawyers can assist with all transactions and disputes concerning cloud computing. We can prepare agreements using our extensive templates, review third party agreements to protect your interests, or supplement standard terms and conditions such as the Government Information Technology Contracting (GITC) framework.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.