CIF strives for clearer skies in cloud computing market

Storm clouds: Onlookers have doubts over the CIF’s credibility

The newly installed chairman of the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) is aiming to clean up the cloud services provision space, but some channel onlookers have questioned the body’s validity.

CIF is a self-regulating body and is a sub-group of the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST). Its chairman is Fasthosts chief executive Andy Burton, who claimed that CIF was “a natural evolution” for FAST.

“Our core values are to provide sensible advice to the industry around best practice and provide a mechanism for end users to find out whether a company will meet their needs,” he said.

CIF is in the process of drawing up a code of conduct, a draft of which will appear later this month, prior to the body going live in May. Burton revealed the code would focus on five key areas: companies’ financial states, their operations, delivery, governance and technology.

Companies adhering to the code can obtain certification and Burton claimed more than 20 companies were already getting involved.

“It is not an exclusive club or a cartel,” he added.

Burton claimed setting up a regulatory body was essential to the furtherance of the market.

“It is relatively cost-efficient to set up a web presence and offer services to the big wide world,” he said. “But you have got to be able to deliver operational performance behind that. There are things around a company’s maturity and capability that you just cannot see by only interacting with a website.”

But Jonathan Lassman, managing director of VAR NTS, claimed the cloud space would be hard to regulate.

“If you are going to have standards that are adhered to, then it makes sense,” he said. “But the cloud is far too big and is impossible to police. I do not think this will gain any traction.”