The cloud is worth the risk if the annual benefit minus the expected cost of risk is greater than the cost to run in-house. A simple statement, however, on closer inspection the complexity of the decision becomes apparent and the engineer in me rises to the surface. Below is the cloud outsourcing decision expressed in mathematical terms. If you follow it through your cloud outsourcing decision should become clearer, even if it is difficult to assign numbers to give you an accurate answer.
In mat
