Moving to the cloud has become a popular trend recently, but according to Jonathan Hoppe, president and CTO of Cloud Leverage, there are several questions a business should ask itself before choosing a cloud storage vendor.

“While determining whether cloud storage is appropriate for your business, and if so, which vendor to choose, properly vetting providers is a critical process,” Hoppe explained in a recent Data Center Knowledge article. “Cloud storage is now available to the masses as a commodity, but in order to securely and efficiently apply the technology as a business asset for enterprises and SMBs, there are several factors that define the vendors that offer enterprise-grade services.”

The top questions that should be asked include “Where is your data?”; “How is the data secured?”; “What caliber facilities are being utilized?”; and “Does the price scale down as you scale up?”

With regards to the first question, Hoppe contends that it is paramount to determine where the data will be stored when it is uploaded to the cloud so that a business can ensure the tightest of security and the best of performance.  Many enterprises may take comfort in the fact that their data is being stored within the borders of certain countries, while others might want to complete several performance tests before selecting a cloud storage vendor.

One of the most important questions, however, is figuring out what makes the data secure.

“No matter what measures are taken to make a good decision about cloud storage, the data is still traversing a very hostile place – the public Internet,” Hoppe argues. “Because of this, enterprise cloud storage vendors should employ high levels of encryption both in transit and at rest. This form of security becomes more advanced every year, but good benchmarks to look for are 256 bit AES or SSL encryption. Some vendors even go so far as to set up hardware-based VPNs to the cloud or even create ultra-secure MPLS private-lines.”

Like Hoppe, Cirtas, a cloud storage company, is at the forefront trying to create solutions that ameliorate company concerns about cloud security.

The 2010 Red Herring Top 100 North America Company, aimed at making cloud storage work like on–site storage arrays, recently published an article on its website that discusses the concern surrounding cloud storage and the way that Cirtas’ solutions address those issues.  

The number one reason that companies are hesitant to go to the cloud, according to Cirtas, is because they want to ensure the utmost security for their data. Despite steps taken by cloud storage providers to make sure the data is completely secure, “there is a perceived risk that data can be compromised,” Cirtas explained.  Yet Cirtas has the solution, the Bluejet Cloud Storage Controller.

To read more about how the Bluejet ensures cloud storage security, click here.