US government agencies hold major reservations over the use of cloud computing for the storage of their data.

This is according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which found concerns were rife within 22 of 24 government departments.

Worries included not being able to examine the security structure of vendors and whether they would still be able to access their data when the relationship was severed.

In reaction to this report, the GAO director of information security services Gregory Wilshusen told the US House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee that cloud computing creates many data security threats.

"These risks generally relate to dependence on the security assurances and practices of a service provider and the sharing of computing resources," he added.

Last week, the UK managing director at the Association for Information and Image Management Doug Miles claimed that the presence of a government-backed cloud server would allay many of these fears.