ABSTRACT
Cloud-based systems are being used in a number of industry verticals for applications such as Enterprise backup and storage, Productivity tools (Word Processing, spreadsheets, presentation, collaboration), Accounting and Financial applications, ERP, and so on with success. Businesses, in particular smaller businesses have been using such Cloud-based solutions for several years now. The fact that Cloud-based services cost signifi cantly less and require virtually no upfront expense makes Cloud services particularly attractive to this user group. Reported cases of security breaches or data compromise have substantially reduced-indeed almost eliminated-over the years. This is in part because of the fact that technology has matured and also because customers have become used to following basic precautions necessary for safely using such services. Many fi nancial institutions also offer their services via the Cloud. Customers can review their accounts, transfer funds and perform other operations over the web. Millions of customers avail of these services. The earlier apprehensions about the security of fi nancial data hosted in the Cloud have largely dissipated and customers have begun to value the tremendous convenience of using these services.
