A new standard has been launched which provides guidance to organisations on important aspects of moving business into the Cloud.

SWiFT 10: Adopting the Cloud – decision support for Cloud Computing was jointly developed by the National Standards Authority Ireland (“NSAI”) and the Irish Internet Association (“IIA”).

The welcome publication of this new standard comes as part of the Action Plan for Jobs 2012 initiative launched by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. In a press release, the Department acknowledged the existing lack of standards guiding businesses in the implementation of cloud services. It is hoped that the launch of this new standard will act as a road map for businesses seeking to encompass all cloud delivery and deployment models.

The Cloud Computing Working Group (a specialist group within the IIA) that worked on developing the standard comprises of an expert group of cloud computing vendors and business leaders. The objective is to educate decision makers on the advantages of cloud computing.

The SWiFT standard also contains a Decision Support Matrix made up of a number of categories which, through the experience of the Working Group, have proved either challenging or beneficial to businesses considering migrating to the Cloud. The Matrix is designed to assist organisations to quickly assess their overall suitability for such migration.

As a spokesperson for the NSAI recently pointed out, many people are unaware that they are already using cloud computing on an everyday basis, for example, in the use of email and social networking. The recently launched SWiFT standard may now encourage businesses, big and small, to take their first real steps into the Cloud.

Contributed by David Cullen