Google has announced its Apps for Business suite has been certified to the ISO 27001 security standard.
The company hopes it will help convince potential customers that it can keep their data secure in the cloud.
Google says the certification covers its entire systems, technology, processes and data centres serving Google Apps for Business, Eran Feigenbaum, director of security, Google Enterprise, wrote on the company’s blog.
"In the early days of the cloud, security concerns were often at the top of business minds as they considered moving to Google Apps. More recently, though, security has become a major reason businesses are moving to the cloud," he wrote.
"The reason for this shift is that businesses are beginning to realise that companies like Google can invest in security at a scale that’s difficult for many businesses to achieve on their own. This investment has produced an infrastructure and a set of services with robust data protection for our customers," Feigenbaum added.
As Feigenbaum points out the move is aimed at convincing potential customers that "Google is committed to ongoing development and maintenance of a robust Information Security Management System (ISMS)," thereby increasing adoption of its cloud-based Microsoft Office rival.
Google recently signed up Spanish bank BBVA, which the company said showed its strength when it comes to security. The bank said it would move 35,000 workers in Spain to Gmail with Google Chat, Calendar, Docs, Groups, Sites and Video, and by the end of 2012 expects to have 110,000 workers in 26 countries migrated to the cloud-based platform.
However Google Apps has also face security scrutiny. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) abandoned its plans to sign up to Google Apps because it said the service cannot meet stringent FBI security guidelines.
