The TechRepublic community has made it clear; compliance of where your data resides in the cloud is a top concern. In this blog post, IT Jedi Rick Vanover takes a look at what one company has done with standards-based status.

—————————————————————————————–

In a previous post, I mentioned that storage in the cloud is a different beast from a technology perspective. The main difference is that most cloud storage providers utilize an API for access to the cloud storage resource for customer access. Further, I have discussed how cloud storage availability is another important planning point.

Today a very important step has occurred for storage provider Nirvanix, which has demonstrated a running trend of standards-based practices. Cloud storage provider Nirvanix obtained SAS 70 Type II certification for their practices in providing secured, reliable cloud storage. SAS 70 Type II certification shows that demonstrated processes of controls are in place for a running period of time. The SAS 70 standard is defined by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and is described here. Nirvanix focuses exclusively on cloud storage and targets enterprise customers with robust solutions to match their requirements.

Obtaining a standards-based certification for business practices is to be applauded by cloud providers. Nirvanix isn’t the only cloud provider in this category, however. Other cloud providers are working on this diligently as we speak. Ideally, all cloud providers would have this and other standards-based qualifications. As a technology community, we tend to gravitate heavily on news of outages and interruptions of service by the “new technologies” associated with buzzwords.

There are big names in the cloud, so naysayers be warned! In the coming weeks in this blog, I will be lining up case studies of companies that are in the cloud. Does this news do anything for you? I think it is a big step forward in credibility to the cloud. Share your comments below.