Partner Article

Outsourcery renews its CIF Code of Practice Certification

16 April 2015

Outsourcery renews its CIF Code of Practice Certification Commitment to cloud industry best practice reaffirmed

APM Group, the Cloud Industry Forum’s (CIF) independent certification partner, has announced that Cloud Services Provider (CSP) Outsourcery, has successfully recertified against the CIF Code of Practice (CoP) for Cloud Service Providers certification.

The CIF CoP is a credible, certifiable tool that allows CSPs to demonstrate that they meet standardised, specified requirements that ensure transparency, accountability, capability and high quality for assurance, for cloud-related projects.

Founded in 2007, Outsourcery is one of the UK’s leading providers of cloud-based IT and business communications solutions, delivering cloud services to partners and customers of all sizes. Operating throughout the UK, Outsourcery works across three offices and is a founder member of CIF. Part of the government’s G-Cloud framework, Outsourcery offers its cloud solutions through the government’s Digital Marketplace and has also gained official CESG Pan Government Accreditation (PGA) to meet data sovereignty and security specifications for the public sector.

“As one of CIF’s founding members, the CIF Code of Practice is something that we are fully committed to and have been since our very first accreditation”, says Piers Linney, Co-CEO of Outsourcery and member of the CIF Code of Governance Board. “It acts as a valuable benchmark and is important to clients as it provides them with confidence that the cloud services they are investing in are of a high quality; the relationship between suppliers and clients is of a suitably high and professional standard; and that – ultimately – the cloud delivers value and benefits to their organisation. In addition to this, Outsourcery now has platforms that are CESG PGA certified to process government classified OFFICIAL information over both the Internet and Public Sector Network (PSN).”

APM Group has been working with CIF to encourage larger cloud vendors, who provide the vital infrastructure to smaller CSPs, to go through the CIF certification process. The aim is to not only provide an added level of credibility at the very start of the cloud supply chain, but also to ensure larger providers can enable their certified status to be used by other network partners who use the infrastructure to deploy services to customers.

Richard Pharro, CEO of APM Group, adds: “Organisations seeking to use cloud services need a straightforward way to qualify potential suppliers that will accurately define the services offered and the standards of operations and security. Outsourcery has demonstrated commitment to the Code of Practice since its first accreditation in 2013 and we look forward to continuing to work closely with them to encourage their partner network to certify and drive best practice in cloud delivery.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

About The APM Group Limited

APM Group Limited is a global business providing accreditation and certification services. Through an international network of Partner Organisations and Accredited Organisations they help end users develop their professional skills and organisations improve their processes through the adoption of worldwide best practice and international and national standards.

The APM Group is the only organisation offering professional qualifications in Programme and Project management with third party independent accreditation through the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).

About Outsourcery

Outsourcery is a world-leading UK-based Cloud Services Provider (CSP), offering one of the broadest offerings of cloud-based services built on Microsoft’s technology and best-of-breed Dell and HP hardware, for businesses of all sizes. The company aims to remove the need for organisations to own and manage on-premises IT, Unified Communications and conferencing applications and infrastructure.

End customers range from start-ups to FTSE-100 businesses and Outsourcery serves an extensive partner base of over 500 IT and telco providers, which include Virgin Media Business and Vodafone. Outsourcery’s service portfolio is also available to the public sector and listed on the Digital Marketplace as part of the government’s GCloud initiative. The business is certified to run government classified information at OFFICIAL over the internet and has achieved CESG Pan Government Accreditation (PGA) to meet data sovereignty and security specifications for the UK public sector.

Outsourcery is a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner with a total of eight competencies of which three are gold and five are silver. As well as being the first company outside of the US to be named Microsoft’s worldwide ‘Hosting Solutions Partner of the Year’, Outsourcery is a Microsoft CityNext Partner and a Microsoft Cloud Accelerate Partner. Outsourcery is also an HP Cloud Agile Partner and was the winner of HP’s Most Innovative Service Award in 2013. As well as being a founding member of the Cloud Industry Forum, Outsourcery was awarded the UK Cloud Award Collaboration Partner of the Year in 2014. The company is a corporate member of MSDUK, a member of TechUK and holds ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards.

Outsourcery has over 100 employees, with offices in Manchester, London and Leicester, and was also the UK’s first certified carbon neutral CSP.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Spreckley .