Cloud Computing Benefits, risks and recommendations for information security

Cloud computing is a new way of delivering computing resources, not a new technology. Computing services ranging from data storage and processing to software, such as email handling, are now available instantly, commitment-free and on-demand. Since we are in a time of belt-tightening, this new economic model for computing has found fertile ground and is seeing massive global investment. According to IDC’s analysis, the worldwide forecast for cloud services in 2009 will be in the order of $17.4bn. The estimation for 2013 amounts to $44.2bn, with the European market ranging from €971m in 2008 to €6,005m in 2013 .