Major credit card issuers created PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance standards to protect personal information and ensure security when transactions are processed using a payment card. All members of the payment card industry (financial institutions, credit card companies and merchants) must comply with these standards if they want to accept credit cards. Failure to meet compliance standards can result in fines from credit card companies and banks and even the loss of the ability to process credit cards.

If you are an Application Service Provider (ASP), or deliver Software as a Service (SaaS), the Internet is your lifeline. SaaS targets businesses (mostly small and medium ones, but also large enterprises in some markets) with mission-critical applications. As a customer of SaaS Hosting Infrastructure you have extended a Service Level Agreement (SLA) to your customers, and now must not only meet your own stringent requirements for quality, but also the expectations of those who rely on you for their success.

PCI DSS Compliance is mandatory

The PCI DSS- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a worldwide information security standard assembled by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council . For any organisation that stores, processes, or transmits cardholder information, PCI Compliance is mandatory.

Virtualisation is the new word in computing where multiple servers are required.  Often referred to as Cloud computing comes in many forms, and SaaS is a widely used.