CIF launches Code of Practice

Following extensive consultation the CIF Code of Practice is ready to go

The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) has launched a Code of Practice to ensure suppliers stick to a benchmark for cloud services.

CIF spent two months consulting with 200 organisations to review the draft Code, which aims to standardise and certify enterprises offering Cloud Computing services.

The respondents came from a wide range of industry sectors including service providers, software vendors, IT consultancies, industry bodies and analysts The organisation has been working on the development of the draft Code since October 2009.

Andy Burton, chairman of CIF, said: “Interest in CIF has been growing rapidly since we announced its formation and since that time the founding members have been working hard to develop a detailed Code of Practice.

“What was critical in the development of the Code was not only the process of public consultation but critically a period during which our members could pilot the Code of Practice itself. That has taken over four months, raised a number of issues that had to be resolved relating to governance, transparency, capability and accountability, as well as detailed and comprehensive pilots being run by a number of CIF members.

“We firmly believe that the market needs a credible and certifiable Code of Practice that provides transparency of Cloud services such that consumers can have clarity and confidence in their choice of provider.

The market now has that benchmark.” Phil Haylor, compliance officer for Rackspace and CIF member, said: “Cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) computing is growing at a phenomenal rate and so this sector needs control mechanisms.

“By laying down the Code of Practice, the Cloud Industry Forum has now established a credible gauge for customers to assess a vendor's capability to deliver a robust and secure high quality cloud service. With this clarity of information in place, the industry can now move forward and be judged on its ability to deliver."

Mark Cresswell, president of Scalable, added: “It was absolutely essential that all major stakeholders in the cloud ecosystem see the clear benefits in the Code. It had to include end-users as well as providers and the large number of smaller organisations offering customisable packages of services between the two. At the end of the day this is about building trust in the Cloud and we firmly believe that the Code of Practice will deliver just that.”