Cloud Pro: Cloud accreditation - 7 questions to ask providers

With cloud skills in short supply, opinion is divided about the merit of qualifications and accreditations when choosing a supplier. Cloud Pro puts 7 questions to different providers in the cloud industry market on this topic. Martin Saunders, Product Director at Claranet UK comments on how to evaluate accreditation bodies.

Extract taken from Cloud Pro

Question 7: Evaluate the accreditation bodies

...On this question, we have to go back to basics says Martin Saunders, product director at Claranet.

"What does ‘accreditation’ mean? On the one hand, you have organisations that put themselves through the stress of ensuring that their infrastructure, technology and processes are up to scratch and submitting documents and evidence to standards bodies,” he says. All so that they can get their ISO:27001, PCI-DSS or Public Sector Network (PSN) accreditation.

On the other end of the scale are the self accredited. "There’s a whole host of groups who have spotted a gap in the market to provide their own cloud accreditations, which give a fig leaf of respectability," says Saunders.

Look at the basis for the accreditation – are they based on existing, well-known standards, or are they woolly in their wording or their origins? That should be the litmus test of any accreditation that is dangled before end users."

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