The European Union has released Cloud Service Level Agreement Standardization Guidelines, according to a post on Morrison & Foerster’s SociallyAware blog by Alistair Maughan. He said they were first contemplated in 2012, at which time the Commission on Cloud Computing issued a “road map” considering the future growth of the industry in Europe.
“The guidelines are intended to help business-to-business users of cloud solutions to ensure that key elements are included in plan language in contracts they make with cloud providers,” explained Maughan. Here’s what that will mean:
- Vocabulary and terminology: Maughan pointed out that the new standardization could be useful for businesses because it gives them the vocabulary and terminology for the technology, and also covers service objectives such as performance, security, data management and personal data protection.
- Shortfalls: Since the guidelines don’t have any mandatory elements, Maughan said the adoption of them depends entirely on the parties and, therefore, their reach is unknown at this time. He said they’ll only really be impactful if nations outside the EU implement similar ones.
- The future: Depending on how they are received, the guidelines could motivate other nations to create cloud metrics, said Maughan. Or they could also be largely ignored. He said their use will be dependent on the cloud industry itself, as “without industry buy-in, the guidelines may have little practical effect,” he said.
