Standardization in action: How can standards help ensure transparency in cloud services?

Due to the numerous advantages that it brings, Cloud Computing has become increasingly used by individuals and businesses, regardless of their field of activity. However, service level agreements (SLAs) vary between Cloud providers, which may lead customers to ask questions about the transparency of the established contracts, the quality of service, or the billing strategy.

The technical standardization committee ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 38 Cloud Computing and Distributed Platforms has developed several technical reports and standards to provide some answers regarding contract transparency between the supplier and customer, as well as the billing strategy, in Cloud Computing. These are namely:

–SO/IEC TR 23613:2020 Information technology — Cloud computing — Cloud service metering elements and billing modes;

–ISO/IEC 19086-1:2016 Information technology — Cloud computing — Service level agreement (SLA) framework — Part 1: Overview and concepts;

–ISO/IEC 19086-2:2018 Information technology — Cloud computing — Service level agreement (SLA) framework — Part 2: Metric model;

–ISO/IEC 19086-3:2017 Information technology — Cloud computing — Service level agreement (SLA) framework — Part 3: Core conformance requirements; and

–ISO/IEC 19086-4:2019 Cloud computing — Service level agreement (SLA) framework — Part 4: Components of security and of protection of PII.

The video below gives an overview of these documents. It also presents the different services offered by ILNAS and ANEC GIE for the benefit of the national market to consult, buy or participate in the development of standards.