What risk is associated with losing access to data because the cloud provider has ceased operations?

Losing access to data because the cloud provider has ceased operations is most accurately described by the concept of vendor lock-out. Vendor lock-out refers to the situation where users are unable to access their data or services because of issues with the provider, such as the provider ceasing operations. In this case, the customer's data is effectively locked away because they have no way to retrieve or access it after the provider is no longer in operation.

This concept highlights the critical dependency organizations may have on their cloud service providers. In the event that a provider becomes unavailable, either due to bankruptcy or other operational failures, customers may find themselves unable to retrieve their valuable data, leading to potential business disruption and financial loss.

Other options are less relevant to this specific risk. Application Transfer Risk involves issues related to transferring applications to a new platform, and Infrastructure Risk generally pertains to vulnerabilities in the underlying technology and hardware that support services. Vendor Lock-in speaks to the difficulties of moving to a different provider due to proprietary technologies and practices, but it does not directly address the immediate risk of losing access due to the provider's failure.