"Companies are generally concerned about the cloud being another mechanism for corporate information to escape their entity," Walden says. "BYOD (bring your own device), combined with cloud-based solutions worry CIOs and security professionals that they are potentially losing control of their data." Providers are only beginning to realize this and create offerings to address such concerns, he says.

There are differences among SLAs from various providers, the researchers found. For example, Amazon Web Services offers 99.95% uptime and availability, whereas many other cloud providers offer up to 99.999% uptime. But within the offerings from the providers, they are not yet customizing them to individual customers on a large scale, the study found.

Kosten Metreweli, CMO at OnApp, which provides a cloud platform for service provider, says SLAs and unique features offer a way for providers to differentiate themselves, and that's good for both providers and users. For example, it can be costly for a provider to add another 9 or two to increase the availability up to 99.999%. But, not all customers need that level of uptime guarantee. "You don't buy a Ferrari and go to the grocery store with it," he says, noting that if a company is just running test and development and not production-grade in the cloud, then there may not be a need for 99.999% uptime.

Providers that can give customers the level of service, and the prices they desire, will be able to differentiate themselves in the market. Providers can also differentiate on compliance and regulatory uptime. Not all customers will need a HIPPA or FISMA-compliant cloud offering, but the ones who do may be willing to pay a little extra for it.

"In a world where cloud infrastructure is rapidly commoditizing, it's essential for service providers to differentiate on some level," he says. SLA's could be that avenue.