Cloud computing has recently captured the attention and imagination of the business and IT worlds. A general atmosphere of positive analysis surrounds the potential and future of cloud computing. “In May 2008, Merrill Lynch. . . estimated the financial benefits of Cloud Computing at three to five times for business applications and more than five times for consumer applications” (Slabeva 2010, 47). According to an IDC forecast, spending on cloud services is expected to nearly triple between 2008 and 2012, to $42 billion (Slabeva 2010). Amid all these positive forecasts and predictions, it seems clear that the cloud is here to stay and that those who leverage it correctly will have the opportunity to grow their business, seemingly almost indefinitely. Cloud-based applications, or Software as a Service (SaaS), is considered the reason why cloud computing came into existence (Marks 2010). For the end user, cloud-based applications are what make cloud computing work; these are Internet applications. Applications like Google Docs, which includes a word processor, a spreadsheet and even a drawing tool, among other things; SalesForce.com, which offers a wide range of customer relationship management (CRM) tools; and 37signals, which offers a number of business collaboration tools, all available on the cloud. Businesses can benefit greatly from using cloud-based applications. “Cloud computing helps reduce IT infrastructure costs through a combination of capital expenditure avoidance, pay-as-you-go capability, better utilization of virtualized IT capacity, and reduced operational costs in requiring fewer internal IT resources to focus on core product IT infrastructure. ...... middle of paper ......mation. http://sas70.com/sas70_overview.html (accessed May 13, 2011). Slabeva, Katarina, Thomas Wozniak and Santi Ristol. Grid and Cloud Computing: A business perspective on technology and applications. Heidelberg: Springer, 2010.FCC. See Federal Communications Commission. Federal Communications Commission. 2009. Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan. http://download.broadband.gov/plan/national-broadband-plan.pdfVerizon. "Verizon | Verizon Completes SAS 70 Type II Examination of Cloud Computing Data Centers." Verizon | News Center - Home Page. http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2011/verizon-completes-sas-70-type.html (accessed May 2, 2011). Weier, Mary Hayes. “The Truth About SaaS and Security.” In-depth articles on Workday. http://www.workday.com/innovation/featured_articles/the_truth_about_saas_and_security.php (accessed May 14, 2011).