The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) has criticised the newly formed Cloud Alliance (CA) saying that it is a misleading commercial enterprise, not to be trusted till it adopts its own independent and certified code of practice.
CIF was launched in 2009 as an organisation dedicated to promoting trust, security and transparency within the cloud sector. CA was launched a few days ago as a vendor partnership between 15 companies offering cloud services on Star’s cloud platform.
CIF chairman Andy Burton criticised the newly formed body saying, "Apparently a rigorous process was implemented (by Star themselves we assume) to whittle down literally ‘thousands’ of would-be cloud providers and enablers into a list of just 15-17 businesses that can meet the needs of the UK SMB market according to Star’s business development person,"
"Unsurprisingly, the only firms making the cut were firms that don’t compete with Star, and many of who they have historically worked with on opportunities. I would love to hear from some of the hopeful companies that supposedly must have had their business plans dashed by not becoming a member of this ‘new’ organisation, but somehow I doubt that even one of these claimed ‘thousands’ will ever come forward," he added.
Burton was also sceptical of the new alliance saying that people must wait and see whether it adopts its own independent and certified code of practice or not.
"Until this is rectified, end users should clearly see this alliance as nothing more than a collaborative commercial working agreement between a private group of companies who believe they have nothing to lose and something to gain from working together," said Burton.
Star Business Development Director Grant Tanner was quoted by eWeek as saying that CA was disappointed to see CIF’s reaction.
"I actually think that they should be quite welcoming for what we’re trying to do here. We’re not trying to make a standards committee. We’re trying to get value for customers on things that they want to procure and they want to procure differently to the way they have in the past," he said.
"In no way is this a disruptive alliance. What it is, is a commercial alliance aimed at giving customers a different way of sourcing and procuring cloud products and services," he added.
