Sept. 13 — The unique security challenges faced by the public sector in deploying cloud computing will be the focus of the International Cloud Symposium (ICS), the second in a series of events hosted by the not-for-profit OASIS open standards consortium. High-level government officials from around the world will explore the intersection of policies, standards, and best practices with leaders from the privacy, identity, and security industry. ICS will be held on 10-12 October in the Washington, DC area.

"Public and governmental institutions use a big volume of confidential or sensitive data such as citizen personal information. The privacy and protection of this data are top concerns for them, particularly in the EU," said Adil Soussi Nachit of the Belgium Ministry of Finance. "Organizations willing to go to the cloud should have clear data governance and identify the risks especially when the Cloud provider has datacenters in multiple jurisdictions."

Responses to the need for policy and standards in the cloud have been driven to a great degree on a national basis. ICS will work to broaden the dialogue with presentations from key players in Europe, North America, and Asia. The event will offer a truly global perspective of the standardization issues for Cloud security.

"Cloud computing is built on standards, and standards are a core issue for ensuring that interoperable systems can be configured to meet both business requirements and the demands of international laws and regulations," said Paul Lipton, VP Industry Standards and Open Source at CA Technologies, OASIS Board Director, and Co-Chair of the OASIS TOSCA Technical Committee. "Even as public sector policymakers are beginning to look closely at the cloud, in OASIS we are building standards that will help strengthen the policy-configurable security, privacy, and portability of cloud applications."

ICS Sponsors:

• CA Technologies
• IBM
• Microsoft

Confirmed U.S. Government Speakers:

• Dawn Leaf, Department of Commerce
• Anil Karmel, Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration
• Deb Gallagher, General Services Administration
• Lisa Carnahan, National Institute of Standards & Technology…

Other Speakers represent:

• Amazon Web Services
• American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
• Bank of America
• Carnegie Mellon University
• CA Technologies
• European Commission
• IBM US Federal Business
• KuppingerCole
• Microsoft Federal Civilian Business
• Oracle Public Sector
• Salesforce
• and many more organizations...

ICS supporters include the Siena Initiative (funded by the European Union), the Cloud Standards Customer Council, the Cloud Computing Best Practices Network, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the European Association for e-Identity and Security (eema).

Registration for this event is open to all, but space is limited, so early registration is advised.

Press passes are available; contact communications@oasis-open.org.

About OASIS

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information society. OASIS promotes industry consensus and produces worldwide standards for cloud computing, security, business transactions, electronic publishing, Smart Grid, and other applications. OASIS open standards offer the potential to lower cost, stimulate innovation, grow global markets, and protect the right of free choice of technology. OASIS members broadly represent the marketplace of public and private sector technology leaders, users and influencers. The consortium has more than 5,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries. http://www.oasis-open.org.

-----

Source: OASIS