Randy Rowland, General Manager, Managed Hosting & Cloud Computing Services, Terremark Worldwide, Inc told the audience that just because an application is in the cloud doesn't mean that it is disaster tolerant. If a cloud deployment is made up of multiple virtual machines and the host box goes down and there is not backup, the service will be unavailable.

"A mistake people make is they assume because it's in the cloud it is backed up somewhere, Rowland said. "You have to look at the platform, it's part of the dark side of the cloud."

Rowland suggests that cloud users need to know how data backup is done and how resilient the service actually is. He also noted that there are concerns about vendor lock-in. Users need to find environments where their data is portable. Integration with existing data center and enterprise assets is also key and is sometimes overlooked in Rowland's view.

Compliance and auditing are also a dark side of the cloud concern that needs to be addressed.

Those 'dark side' issues however can all be overcome according to panelists at the event.

"Simply saying the cloud is not secure as a flat statement doesn't get you to the interesting part,"Peter Coffee, Director, Platform Research, salesforce.com said. "Rather, just ask what specifically you don't get and we'll help you figure it out for pennies on the dollar cost for remedying the  perceived defects in the cloud."