Cloud Industry Forum Launches Code Of Practice

The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) has formally launched its Code of Practice for cloud service providers, as part of its effort to make the delivery of cloud services more transparent and accountable.

Back in early July, industry experts called for more regulation and standardisation of cloud services, as the uptake of the technology began to increase. And in September CIF created a Governance Board and announced it was looking for industry volunteers.

The Code of Practice was created because of concerns that there are too many rivals offering confusing services, and no way for potential customers to know how well these offerings are supported.

Long Time Coming

Over 200 organisations have gone through the process of reviewing the draft Code, which aims to eventually standardise and certify enterprises offering Cloud Computing services.

“It has been a long time coming (since October 2009),” said Andy Burton, Chairman of CIF and CEO of Fasthosts, speaking to eWEEK Europe. “The initiative’s prime driver is that there is a lot of hype about the cloud, and sometimes its benefits can get lost in all the noise. This area is attracting a lot of investment, but we recognise that a lot of the technical messages from the various suppliers can be difficult for the consumer to understand and translate.”

“So we recognised the need for a Code of Practice, and in July we went public and launched a consultative process that gave us feedback so that the model had integrity, but also balanced the views of both the industry and consumers, as well as specialist sectors such as legal etc,” said  Burton.

“Today we are formerly launching the Code of Practice, and you can now register online for self certification,” said Burton, who also explained that there is a fee to access the assessment pack, and also a registration fee, to cover the administration costs, as the CIF is a not-for-profit organisation.

Code Of Practice

“The Code focuses on three core things. The first is to do with transparency – what is the real business behind the website etc; the second is capability – how they work behind the website, the service levels etc; and thirdly accountability – a code of practice to achieve best practice, including things like complying with the Advertising Standards Authority over what is being claimed,” said Burton.

There are eight founder members including Outsourcery Fasthosts, Rackspace Hosting, Nominet, APMG-International and Scalable Software.

“We provide a cloud service,” explained Mark Cresswell, President of Scalable (left). “But we believe buying patterns nowadays are different from traditional ways of buying software. There is a desire to get far closer to the company but without involving the salesman. With B2B sales, and the concerns about security and data, unless we do this code of practice, there will be more discussions with sales people than less.”

“We are offering transparency to the consumer, so that vendors can be compared on a like-for-like basis, said Burton. “This market is so young, and the technology is involving at a such a pace, there is absolutely a need for transparent access.”

“We will provide a certification mark for people who go through the assessment, similar to the (SSL) padlock symbol we see in a web browser when doing online transactions,” he said.

Welcomed By Industry

Burton believes that the Code will help ease some of the users’ confusion and concerns about the cloud. Back in June a poll of listeners to a webinar hosted by eWEEK Europe UK revealed that 56 did not believe the cloud was ready to be trusted yet. But the majority agreed that issues around security and reliability would be solved relatively soon, and many are looking to the cloud to simplify IT services.

Meanwhile the launch of the Code has been welcomed by EuroCloud UK, the industry body for SaaS and cloud vendors.

“We welcome this initiative which has been launched today as it helps end users as they look to the industry to define and agree on best practices for cloud computing which they can rely on,” said Phil Wainewright, EuroCloud UK president.

“Organisations seeking to use these services need a straightforward form of certification or ‘Code of Practice’ for potential suppliers that will unambiguously define the services offered, standards of operation and security,” he added. “The CIF Code helps further EuroCloud’s strategy to develop an industry-wide framework for customer confidence in the quality and integrity of cloud delivered services.”