Preface:

Standards development within the Information Technology sector is harmonized with international standards development. Through the CSA Technical Committee on Information Technology (TCIT), Canadians serve as the SCC Mirror Committee (SMC) on ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology (ISO/IEC JTC1) for the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the ISO member body for Canada and sponsor of the Canadian National Committee of the IEC. Also, as a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Canada participates in the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (ITU-T).

This Standard has been formally approved, without modification, by the Technical Committee and has been developed in compliance with Standards Council of Canada requirements for National Standards of Canada. It has been published as a National Standard of Canada by CSA Group.

Scope:

This document provides guidance on the use of international standards as a tool in the development of those policies that govern or regulate cloud service providers (CSPs) and cloud services, and those policies and practices that govern the use of cloud services in organisations.

This includes material that explains cloud computing concepts and the role of cloud computing international standards in formulating policies and practices.

The document makes references to various international standards. Where possible, these standards are ISO/IEC standards. Where a suitable ISO/IEC standard is not available, references are made to documents published by other WTO-registered standards bodies.

As explained in the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), standards play a vital role in supporting technical regulations and conformity assessment, however this document does not cover matters of trade.