With cloud adoption rates in the UK set to soar over the next 12 months, particularly in the SME market, CIF Certification will be key to encouraging end user confidence and gaining market share, says APM Group, the Cloud Industry Forum’s (CIF) independent certification partner.
According to the latest research from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), overall cloud adoption in the UK currently stands at a healthy 61 percent. Of the 39 percent of organisations not currently using cloud services, around 1 in 4 (26 percent) plan to do so in the coming year. Moreover, fully 80 percent of cloud users expect to extend their use of the cloud over the next 12 months. Of these users, and future users, 78 percent see value in working with a Cloud Service Provider (CSP) that has signed up to an industry Code of Practice (CoP).
This, according to Richard Pharro, CEO of APM Group, presents a real opportunity for CSPs to capture market share, assuming that they can prove their credentials and adherence to best practice:
“With such a large contingent of non-cloud users expecting to make the transition during the coming year there is clearly a great deal of new business to be won. That said, end users still hold legitimate concerns over security, privacy and data protection, hence the preference to use CSPs that have been certified against an industry standard.
End users are looking for reassurance from their Cloud Service Providers that their data will be safe and secure in the cloud,” Pharro continued. “But in a market of online delivery models with many new vendors, how can a potential customer have confidence that the company with which they wish to work will provide a secure, stable, and effective solution within a framework that enables them to keep control of their data throughout the contract and after it expires?
“Here, the CIF Code of Practice is an invaluable tool. By certifying against the Code, CSPs can publically demonstrate their commitment to best practice, thereby differentiating their services from their competitors, and engender confidence in the end user that the services being offered meet specified requirements of transparency, accountability and capability,” he concluded.
The CIF Code of Practice, initially launched in 2010 following an extensive period of public consultation and piloting, is a credible, certifiable tool that allows CSPs to demonstrate that they meet specified requirements of transparency, accountability and capability. It aims to standardise enterprises offering cloud services to provide clarity, transparency and assurance to end users seeking to migrate to the cloud.
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