CIOs: Boost Confidence In The Cloud With New European Standardization Guidelines

In the fast-moving world of "connected everything," businesses are under pressure to provide real-time answers to their customer, partners, and employees. To address the challenge, European CIOs are increasingly relying on cloud computing as an integral part of their business technology agenda. However, data security and privacy protection remain key concerns — not only because of the costs of failing to comply with regulations and to secure assets but also because of the potential to destroy customer and partner trust, damage the brand, and, ultimately, lose business. When selecting a cloud solution, CIOs must decide which cloud provider is best positioned to help them achieve regulatory compliance and the right level of security. To assist CIOs and cloud users with this task, the European Commission has recently published the Cloud Service Level Agreement Standardisation Guidelines, covering performance, data security, data management, and personal data protection in the cloud as part of the European cloud computing strategy. This report provides CIOs with an overview of these guidelines and assesses their impact on using security and compliance to build competitive advantage.