Aside from offering compelling services at attractive commercial conditions, a good cloud provider is characterized by maximum transparency in all relevant areas relating to the provision of its services.
Transparency concerning the type and quality of the service provision, the involved partners, and the safeguarding measures relating to high-availability operation, security, data privacy, and legal compliance must be documented and communicated in great detail by a truly sound cloud provider. Such documentation establishes trust.
To simply produce an ISO certificate and attempt to pass it off as proof that all necessary evidence has been provided transparently and in a trustworthy manner can almost be viewed as the exact opposite and constituting intentional deception of the customer.
The StarAudit model is an extremely cost-efficient way for cloud providers and cloud customers to establish trust quickly an effectively.
Dr. Tobias Höllwarth is President of EuroCloud Europe eurocloud.org, Director of the StarAudit Programme staraudit.org, and heads a European network of IT lawyers: cloudprivacycheck.eu/who/.
Photocredit: Aaron Amat