Good luck. Like some commercial records centers, most cloud contracts are "one size fits none" and the provider is reluctant to modify the terms and conditions of the contract or implement non-standard processes.

I have yet to find a provider (and this includes a number of "name brands") who will implement any sort of records retention provision. Disposition is generally limited to end of service provisions for disposition of data or is related to non-payment. E-discovery is generally dealt with, but very superficially.

A lot depends upon the nature of the service. Salesforce.com is quite different from Office 365, which is different from Box.net. Each of these "cloud" providers is provisioning different services and requirements generally, so each contract will be a new adventure. In general, you will find some level of administrative access can be granted in order to extract needed data for litigation. Note that legal holds are often difficult to enforce and you will find it almost impossible to place a hold on backups, should backups (in a normal understanding of that term) even exist. Many providers also retain data in many jurisdictions simultaneously, so you have to consider data privacy laws and issues related to legal jurisdiction.

My experience is that some of the cloud providers will bend to the will of a large organization's contractual requirements. Certainly, your organization has that sort of horsepower. But understand that they will likely not add functionality to their service offering solely for your company, particularly if the implementation of that functionality is not standardized across many organizations.

Note that some providers also only provide certain functionality (such as administrative access for e-discovery or investigative purposes) based upon license provisions, so it is also important to work with your IT folks and procurement team to ensure that appropriate licenses are purchased. Sometimes this will add cost to the contract so it is important to ensure that your requirements are captured exactly and included in the negotiation.

 
Patrick Cunningham, CRM, CIP, FAI
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"Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." 
-- Colin Powell

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