Re: Actually, Dave is an IT operations manager
He is on the buy side - not the supply side.
.. and, by the looks of it, wisely on the opposite side of the building as their legal team. The moment you start shoving data out of the door. all sorts of ugly issues start showing up that have little to do with IT but everything with compliance, protection of IP, differences in jurisdictions and laws and generally can get ugly and costly quickly f you get them wrong.
I agree with him, it's nice to make it all someone else's problem, but that demands checking that that someone else won't drop you in it in terms of reliability, sustainability and ability to meet regulation. If you want a simple example how things can go pear shaped quickly, just look at what happened in UK Parliament with Office 365, and that was just a technical problem that demonstrated the lack of SLA or accountability you have with such providers..
If your business risk profile can handle that exposure, lucky you. But that's certainly not valid for all.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
