Many organizations are now looking for new ways to perform compute intensive tasks at a lower cost. Fast provisioning, minimal administration, and flexible instance sizing and capacity, along with innovative third party support for grid coordination and data management through cloud based platforms that support high performance grid computing. One can allocate compute capacity on demand without upfront planning of data center, network, and server infrastructure. You have access to a broad range of instance types to meet your demands for CPU, memory, local disk, and network connectivity. Infrastructure can be run in any of a large number of global regions, without long lead times of contract negotiation and a local presence, enabling faster delivery especially in emerging markets. One can define a virtual network topology that closely resembles a traditional network that you might operate in your own data center. One can build grids and infrastructure as required for isolation ...

This will be determined by the nature of the cloud service offering one select. A cloud service provider will almost certainly have access to the hardware on which data is stored, but one effect of virtualized storage is that access to hardware generally does not by itself provide logical access to stored data. It is the contracts with your preferred cloud service providers limit access to authorized personnel and provide for specific procedures to be followed (and strict limitations governing)  when preferred cloud service provider personnel or contractors access your data. No matter where your data is stored or accessible, it is always possible that a regulator or court of competent jurisdiction might attempt to access data (a) maintained on a service provided by a cloud service provider that is within its jurisdiction, (b) accessible by a cloud service provider or third party within its jurisdiction or (c) maintained on computing equipment within its jurisdiction. In appro...