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Cloud guide launched to help cut out the cowboys

Simon Quicke

A guide to help users steer clear of cowboy cloud sellers has been issued to provide some guidance over what to expect from the best providers when choosing a service.

The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) has issued its best practice guide to contracting in an effort to provide greater clarity and advice to those customers looking to buy a cloud service.

As well as pointing out some issues including data location and ownership and liability, with legal advice from DMH Stallard, there is also a guide to what to expect in a decent SLA.

With interest in the cloud dominating the industry in the last 18 months it has not only given rise to confusion over what exactly is a solid hosted service, but has created the hype that unscruplous suppliers can exploit.

"As with all new markets, there are entrants who are credible, well-intentioned, capable and professional and there are also unfortunately those that are looking to make quick profit and whose public claims will not pass the test of scrutiny," said Andy Burton, chair of CIF.

"Coupled with this is the increasing prevalence of online click-through agreements, originally designed to make procurement easier," he added that it was causing its own problems, "as many have adopted the behaviour of just ticking the 'I agree' box and move forward in the process without reading the small print."


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