Microsoft has requested that the US government takes steps to ensure the security of cloud computing.

At a Brookings Institution Policy forum earlier this week, the company’s senior vice president Brad Smith claimed that organisations need reassurance if they are to transfer data from their own infrastructure to the cloud.

Part of this would include the establishment of a Cloud Computing Advancement Act in the US, introducing laws, rules and policies on how cloud services are administered, with harsher punishments being handed down to data centre hackers, Smith said.

“We also need government to modernise the laws, adapt them to the cloud, and adopt new measures to protect privacy and promote security,” he added. “There is no doubt that the future holds even more opportunities than the present, but it also contains critical challenges that we must address now if we want to take full advantage of the potential of cloud computing.”

In his speech, Smith highlighted the findings of a recent survey commissioned by Microsoft, which found that while 86% of senior business leaders are excited about the potential of cloud computing, more than 90% of them are concerned about security, privacy and access issues.

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced a partnership with Hewlett-Packard that will see the two companies invest $250 million into developing and marketing cloud computing systems over the next three years.