CIF launches new guidance for navigating the CIF Code of Practice

The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) has launched a series of documents to provide new guidance to Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) looking to assess their readiness and prepare for CIF Code of Practice self-certification.

Launched in 2010, the CIF Code of Practice is a credible, certifiable tool that allows enterprises offering cloud services to demonstrate they meet specified requirements of transparency, capability and accountability, in order to provide clarity and assurance to end users seeking to migrate to the cloud.

By launching the guidance with support from the CIF Code Governance Board, CIF has taken steps to help CSPs better understand how self-certification against the Code can benefit their business. The documentation extends existing self-certification guidance, providing clearer direction on the Code’s requirements and the expected evidence and output of a CSP Self-Certification exercise, improving the usability of the scheme.

Alex Hilton, CEO, CIF, said: “There are no doubt tangible benefits of certifying against the Code of Practice, not least for smaller cloud providers, who often must work harder to demonstrate their capabilities to clients and prospects. With this guidance, we aim to make the process as efficient and pain-free as possible. APM Group, our certification partners will also assist service providers through the certification process with hand-holding support and additional clarification as required.”

The guidance draws on the feedback of those service providers who have successfully completed it, including UNIT4 who recently re-certified for a second year. Anwen Robinson, MD commented: “CIF accreditation provides us with additional market credibility - through the certification scheme, commercial and public sector organisations, that are often under pressure to deliver flexible modern systems through cloud computing, can mitigate risk and make rational, informed decisions about the likely trading relationship they can expect with prospective vendors.

“To put this into context it took our audit team only three weeks to deliver the necessary documentation for the accreditation process. Furthermore, we did not need a team of technical experts to do it. From a management perspective this was critical to completing the CIF certification.”

Hilton concluded: “The CIF Code of Practice has been devised to make the cloud industry more transparent and easier to navigate. The benefits are twofold; certification offers CSPs the opportunity to publicly demonstrate that they are serious about delivering quality service and products to their customers. This, in turn, provides end users with a benchmark against which they can measure prospective suppliers, ultimately making the selection of a credible CSP easier.”