This chapter evaluates the unique obligations governments have when they commit citizen data to cloud service providers. In particular, the chapter focuses on how the responsibilities of governments are different than other types of cloud computing users focusing on specific procurement obligations, and other legal requirements.

The chapter also evaluates issues related to “data sovereignty”, outsourcing of government functions, and the potential risk to citizens from outsourcing critical infrastructure. Further, barriers that governments face when procuring cloud computing services including data localization restrictions, difficulties in comparing costs to traditional IT services, and ill-suited contract templates designed for traditional IT-outsourcing being applied to cloud computing services.

The chapter also explains that since operations or services are outsourced to cloud, governments must have the means to monitor them in order to retain a certain level of control over the operations they are outsourcing. The chapter examines government procurement programs in the United States, United Kingdom, and European initiatives to adopt cloud computing at the government level.