ers staff members with these applications. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are among the companies that provide these services online. Some cloud providers offer Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) to customers that promise 99.9 percent uptime, which equates to nine hours of downtime, annually. Moving Applications between Providers and to the Cloud Often, organizations that consider using the cloud for particular applications are con- cerned about portability. Cloud computing has generated a great deal of interest in venture capital/financial organizations that have invested in startup cloud providers. Computing and Enabling Technologies Large, established companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard, as well as ISPs including AT&T, Inc., and Verizon Communications, are also investing in their own cloud initiatives. No one knows which of these companies will be successful. This might lead customers to change providers because of factors such as costs and service, even if the provider is stable, thus enabling them to easily move their data and applica- tions between cloud providers. Moving applications from data centers to the cloud can involve rewriting them or changing internal processes. For example, operating systems and addressing schemes used by a particular cloud provider might be different from those utilized by its cus- tomer. Addressing schemes can include formats such as IP addresses assigned to data- bases and applications, and Media Access Control (MAC) addresses for individual computers. In addition, compatibility between the two infrastructures is important, because applications that reside on a provider's infrastructure interface might not be compatible with its customers' databases. CloudSwitch, Inc., a startup located in Burlington, Massachusetts, offers soft- ware that affords its customers portability within the cloud and enables them to move applications to the cloud without rewriting them or changing in-place processes. The software is downloaded to the customer's virtual servers for its u