Business leaders must weigh a number of options in the process of choosing a cloud computing platform or service. Not only do they have to pick the service that will best fit their business needs, but they also have to find just the right mix of options to ensure security, accessibility, meet regulatory requirements, and so on.

Those decisions can be tough to navigate for any business leader, but for those outside the United States and Europe, there are yet even more considerations. In an article on the site Security Intelligence, author Preethy Soman lists these added challenges specific to Asia-Pacific:

1. Data location

Data centers often reside in the U.S. and Europe, which can complicate the transmission and decryption process, as well as efforts to head off attacks, without a strong strategy.

2. Lack of standards

There are many different cloud providers with many different available security features with no unifying guidelines. Users must look closely at what features providers offer and ensure continuity if they work with more than one cloud provider.

3. Regulatory requirements

Different countries have different data regulations, so businesses based in countries other than where their data resides must be aware of multiple legal requirements. A few options, such as Box Zones from IBM, do enable organizations to make use of data centers closer to home. That’s something for business leaders in the Asia-Pacific region to keep in mind.

4. Integration

Not only must business leaders ensure their cloud providers comply with their country’s regulations and meet their business needs, they also must ensure that a provider’s cloud technology is compliant with their on-premises systems.