Poughkeepsie, NY., June 20, 2011 -- The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (lAOP) today announced the Cloud Service Measurement Initiative Consortium (CSMIC) at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley as its newest Academic Alliance Partner.

IAOP and CSMIC are working to develop a Service Measurement Index (SMI), a set of business-centric performance indicators for members of the Cloud Commons community. This will provide IT professionals with a standardized method for measuring and comparing internal and external cloud services. IAOP has also become a member of CSMIC.

“Having a talented set of leaders joining CSMIC from key professional organizations like IAOP, industry, government, and academia will enable us to develop practical measures to support senior managers who are responsible for making decisions about moving to the cloud,” said CSMIC co-director Dr. Jane Siegel.

Thought leaders who are experts in measuring and managing IT-enabled services formed the CSMIC SMI management program to meet the need for enterprise-wide standards for calculating risk versus reward of cloud computing services.

“The importance of cloud services in outsourcing has grown exponentially,” said IAOP CEO, Debi Hamill. “Through our newest partnership with CSMIC, we expand our ability to bring the latest information on cloud technology directly to our membership and outsourcing professionals worldwide.”

IAOP’s Cloud Computing chapter co-chairs Arijit Sengupta, BeyondCore and Brian Walker, KPMG have been named to the CSMIC Advisory Board. CSMIC co-directors, Dr. Jane Siegel and Jeff Perdue, both Certified Outsourcing Professionals® (COPs), also collaborate with IAOP through the corporate and professional development Strategic Alliance Partner ITSqc,LLC. CSMIC directors are co-chairs of IAOPs Cloud Computing chapter.

About IAOP
The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP®) is the global, standard-setting organization and advocate for the outsourcing profession. With more than 110,000 members and affiliates worldwide, IAOP helps companies increase their outsourcing success rate, improve their outsourcing ROI, and expand the opportunities for outsourcing across their businesses. To learn more, visit www.IAOP.org.

About CSMIC

The Cloud Services Measurement Initiative Consortium (CSMIC) was formed to address the need for industry-wide, globally accepted measures for calculating the benefits and risks of cloud-computing services. Current Consortium members include: Accenture, founding member CA Technologies, Cask LLC, City University of London, Data Security Council of India (DSCI), International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP), Mycroft, State of Colorado’s Office of CIO, State University of New York at Stony Brook, TM Forum, TPI, and the University of Melbourne in Australia.

About Carnegie Mellon University:

Carnegie Mellon (www.cmu.edu) is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 11,000 students in the university’s seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon’s main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California’s Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico.

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Source: Carnegie Mellon University