As cloud computing becomes ubiquitous, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are looking to it as a way of securing their data more efficiently at a potentially lower cost. While service providers tout the cloud as more secure than a corporate data center, experts are not as certain. At issue is how the company negotiates its security agreement with the cloud provider. Some vendors offering services to consumers or small businesses, such as Amazon Simple Storage Service, write into their user agreement that the provider is not responsible for any data security at all. At the other end are companies such as Carpathia Hosting of Dulles, Va., which provides cloud services to the CIA and the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security. Between these poles are many options.
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