Despite this, the report's publishers, the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), warned there are real information security risks, but, with the right approach, it said that users can maximise the benefits that derive from the cloud.

In its report on the cloud, ENISA claims to be the first organisation to take an independent, in-depth look at all the information security and privacy issues of moving into the cloud, outlining some of the information security benefits of the technology, as well as detailing the key ifnormation security risks.

Daniele Catteddu, the agency's report co-ordinator, said that the report's checklist of information security measures allows any company considering a move into the cloud to identify whether a cloud provider is as security-conscious as they could be.

"This is the most important result of our report: our check-list isn't just pulled from thin air", she said.

"We based it on a careful risk analysis of a number of cloud computing scenarios, focusing on the needs of business customers. The most important risks addressed by the check-list include lock-in, failures in mechanisms separating customers' data and applications, and legal risks such as the failure to comply with data protection legislation", she said.

According to Catteddu, with the security checklist, cloud customers now know the right questions to ask - and providers can answer those questions once, instead of being overloaded with requests for assurance about their information security practices.

Delving into the report, which is free to download from the ENISA website, reveals that cloud computing is also something of an information security enabler.

Dr Udo Helmbrecht, ENISA's executive director, said that the scale and flexibility of cloud computing gives the providers an information security edge.

"For example, providers can instantly call on extra defensive resources like filtering and re-routing. They can also roll out new security patches more efficiently and keep more comprehensive evidence for diagnostics", he said.