Traditional IT contracts
A large traditional IT project often includes a wide range of services or products, such as project management, software development, delivery of the standard software, implementation, maintenance and possible training. In addition, data processing takes place at the customer's premises, unless outsourcing is used. There is mainly a close interaction between the parties and there is talk of "delivery" of specific services, software or hardware.
Cloud contracts
However, the introduction of Cloud services has changed a lot. Through the Cloud, data is no longer stored on the hardware of the receiving party, but on the Internet. The provider of the Cloud service offers space in a data center, which the receiving party can use, for a fee or not. In general, Cloud services can be assigned the following characteristics. Cloud contracts are often non-negotiable, as there is a fixed "package" that the recipients of the service use. The (possibly) large number of users is related to this: it is not possible to draw up a different contract for each user. In fact, "take it or leave it" applies. The standard character of the Cloud services also ties in with this. In contrast to traditional IT projects, Cloud often only offers a service. Training, hardware, project management and software development are not very common with a Cloud contract. A final feature of Cloud contracts is the fact that no data processing and storage takes place at the customer, but at the provider of the Cloud service.
Structure of the contracts
Not only the content, but also the structure of Cloud contracts and traditional IT contracts is different. A traditional IT contract consists of two parts: the actual legal agreement and schedules. These schedules contain information about terms, a service level agreement, information about testing and acceptance of the IT project, clauses about communication, penalties and a software escrow. A Cloud contract consists of four different parts, namely: the terms of service, the service level agreement, an acceptable use policy and a privacy policy.
Contact
Would you like assistance in negotiating or drawing up IT contracts? Whether this is a traditional IT contract or a Cloud contract, we are happy to help you! Feel free to contact Legal Q to see what we can do for you.