What is a cloud provider?
The cloud is part of the internet. For example, cloud storage simply means storing your files on a company’s server, with a secure connection over the internet to your computer, smartphone or other device.
Cloud providers are similar, but they let you run applications instead of just storing files. The advantage with cloud providers is that you don't need to keep everything on your own machine. You can log in from any device using a browser or an app, and have instant access to your software and business data.
But the industry of cloud services is a relatively new business. Most of the smaller cloud service companies, and the cloud departments of larger organizations, are just a few years old. This can make it hard to judge which cloud service provider is right for you.
So to help you make that decision we've come up with 10 factors that your cloud service provider should be willing to share with you. We're concentrating on cloud-based accounting providers in this guide, but the points covered can be applied to other types of cloud service provider too.