The Cloud Security Alliance has released it's inaugural whitepaper called "Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing". The paper is being presented today at RSA outlines key issues and provides advice for both Cloud Computing customers and providers within 15 strategic domains. It is now available on the Cloud Security Alliance website at www.cloudsecurityalliance.org/guidance.

According to Alliance co-founders Nils Puhlmann and Jim Reavis, the several months of collaboration on the white paper was worth the effort, "We would like to thank the many contributors to this initial effort. The great diversity of services offered via cloud computing requires careful analysis to understand the risks and mitigation appropriate in each case. At the same time, we see enormous potential for the cloud model to eventually simplify many difficult security problems. This initial deliverable is just the beginning of our efforts, and we would like to extend an open invitation to industry experts to help us create additional best practices for practitioners and the industry."

The Cloud Security Alliance is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to promote the use of best practices for providing security assurance within Cloud Computing, and to provide education on the uses of Cloud Computing to help secure all other forms of computing. The founding thought leaders behind the formation of the Cloud Security Alliance are leading security practitioners from a range of private and public organizations and leading security companies.

• Forrester on Future of Mission-Critical Cloud Computing