Wherever you turn in the tech space these days it seems that you can't escape the cloud. The idea that the burden information technology has imposed on businesses for years can be sloughed off to some magic realm where a tech genie does one's bidding on demand has a powerful attraction for organizations that feel like hamsters in a run-about cage trying to keep pace with the demands on their IT departments. But in this era of compliance and litigation, the cloud's allure can be a Siren's song.

For example, when a business loads its data into the cloud, it could reside anywhere—in another state or another country. If that business becomes embroiled in a lawsuit and needs to access that data to comply with an electronic discovery order, will the laws in the location where its data is located interfere with compliance?

How about data integrity? Is the business's data comingled with other people's data in the cloud. If it is, what legal...