With the Cloud market becoming increasingly saturated, Cloud Service Providers (CSP) must do more to differentiate themselves from competitors and demonstrate their credentials. This is one of the reasons why London Cloud, part of IT solution firm On Line Computing, has chosen to recertify against the Cloud Industry Forum’s (CIF) Code of Practice. Having first achieved certification against the Code of Practice in 2012, the CSP sees the scheme as central to its efforts to inspire trust among its customers.
Established in 2011 by On Line Computing, London Cloud provides comprehensive, end-to-end cloud solutions, including managed security, hosted desktops, email services and the hosting of business-critical applications. The company also provides secure hosted voice and unified communications services and mobile device and application management tools from Citrix.
For Paul Byrne, CEO of London Cloud’s parent company, On Line Computing, the CIF Code of Practice is essential for demonstrating to current and prospective customers that they are fully committed to Cloud computing.
Paul said: “There are a number of IT providers out there that talk the talk when it comes to cloud but have little of real substance to back it up with. While they might have some ‘cloudy’ elements to the services they provide, it can often be quite superficial. Cloud services form the backbone of the work that we do at London Cloud, so we see the Code of Practice as a way of showing that we are serious about the delivery model which sets us apart from other providers in an increasingly crowded marketplace.”
The Code of Practice is a credible, certifiable tool that allows CSPs to demonstrate that they meet specified requirements of transparency, accountability and capability, as prescribed by CIF. It aims to standardise enterprises offering Cloud services to provide clarity, and assurance to end users seeking to migrate to the cloud. The entire process is overseen and managed by CIF’s independent certification partner, APM Group.
Richard Pharro, CEO of APM Group, concluded: “The Cloud Industry Forum’s Code of Practice was developed to allow professional Cloud Service Providers to clearly demonstrate their ethics, practices and processes in order to build trust with end users. The Code of Practice is one of very few schemes which offer this much-needed reassurance and, as evidenced by the fact that so many CSPs continue to recertify against the scheme, certification brings with it significant business benefits.”
