The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), the industry body whose aim is to raise standards and improve transparency in the cloud sector, has announced that BT has become the latest company to join its membership roster.
BT's portfolio strategy, the Cloud of Clouds, is a combination of cloud services, IT integration skills, global network and professional security expertise. It helps organisations transform into digital businesses by allowing them to connect easily and securely to the applications and data they need, regardless of where they're hosted and where they are based.
CIF's Professional Membership and eLearning schemes were key factors in BT's decision to join CIF. The communications provider intends to leverage the schemes to ensure that its staff and partners possess the knowledge and skills necessary to support its customers as they move to the cloud.
Neil Lock, Vice President, Compute, at BT's Global Services division said, "as a cloud provider it is critical we make it as easy as possible for our customers to embrace cloud delivery models and we are focused on removing complexity and increasing choice as part of our Cloud of Clouds strategy. CIF has made great strides in developing a best practice approach to cloud migrations with its Professional Membership and eLearning schemes, resources that we will find invaluable as we take our services and solutions to market. We are extremely excited to be working with CIF and its members and we look forward to driving greater transparency and better cloud confidence for all."
CIF provides transparency through certification to a Code of Practice to endorse credible providers of cloud services and, through its Professional CIF Membership scheme, assists end users in determining the core information necessary to enable them to adopt such services with confidence.
Alex Hilton, CEO of the Cloud Industry Forum said, "having a leading technology company like BT commit to the Cloud Industry Forum only goes to reinforce the central role cloud is playing in the technology industry today. BT has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to the cloud industry and the company therefore comes as a very welcome addition to our membership roster. With BT's experience and expertise, I am confident we will continue to create a more trusted and sustainable cloud for providers and end users alike."