I’ve lost count of the times people have told me that they won’t move their data to the cloud because it won’t be secure as the cloud is inherently insecure. Or that the Data Protection Act prohibits them from moving their data outside the UK and that means they can’t use cloud.

To address these concerns, last year I co-wrote a report with a host of fellow industry experts. I had input from cloud and IT providers: Digital Realty, Exponential-e, Firehost, London Cloud, Ospero, PerspecSys, Proact, Ramsac and Workbooks; information security experts: Blackfoot UK and Razor Thorn Security; trade bodies the Cloud Industry Forum and FAST. They each give their expert view and I give mine. In the report we debunk myths that have grown around the cloud and identify how to keep your data secure while moving it to a cloud. Yes, you can put your data in the cloud and keep it secure and yes that cloud can be based outside the UK.

Since we first published the report, we’ve had several months of revelations from Edward Snowden and I’ve commented on that separately. Of course I revisited the report too, to see if we needed to update anything. But, everything in the report is still accurate today so we’ve republished it with a 2014 foreword with a warning about NSA.

If you want to know how to keep your data secure in the cloud, contact me.