The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the world's leading organization dedicated to defining and raising awareness of best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment, is pleased to announce the first cohort of Cloud Security Alliance Trusted Cloud Providers. Built upon existing CSA programs, the Trusted Cloud Provider trustmark (which will be displayed on each organization's Security, Trust, Assurance & Risk (STAR) registry) will assist consumers in identifying cloud providers that demonstrate their commitment to holistic security and are aligned with their individual security requirements. More than 50 providers, including Qualys and Atlassian, have already been pre-qualified.

"I am so proud of what the Cloud Security Alliance has built over the years, and the Trusted Cloud Provider designation reflects this. It aligns with CSA's principles of making organizations stronger and more secure, and encouraging professionals to increase their knowledge of leading-edge security topics - all of which supports the community at-large," said Jim Reavis, co-founder and CEO, Cloud Security Alliance. "For companies looking to be holistic in demonstrating proper security practices, the Trusted Cloud Provider designation is the pinnacle."

To become a CSA Trusted Cloud Provider, organizations must:

• have a current entry in the CSA Security, Trust, Assurance & Risk (STAR) registry
• have at least one current member of staff who has achieved the CSA Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK)
• be a corporate member and volunteer at least 20 hours annually to CSA for activities such as research working groups, chapter events, blog post, and other work for the common good

"As an early champion of the Cloud Security Alliance, we are pleased to see them build upon their leadership with the new Trusted Cloud Provider designation that helps customers identify solutions aligned with CSA best practices for secure cloud computing," said Sumedh Thakar, interim CEO and chief product officer at Qualys. "We are proud to be among the first companies to be a CSA Trusted Cloud Provider for our cloud-native Qualys Cloud Platform, which helps make businesses more secure by providing visibility across hybrid-IT environments for a single view from prevention to detection and response."

"We have been a long-time supporter of the Cloud Security Alliance and the research and guidance it provides as part of its efforts to enhance security across the cloud community. We quickly realized the importance of registering our popular cloud products such as Jira and Confluence as CSA STAR-certified and feel that being an early adopter of the new Trusted Cloud Provider designation is a natural progression," said Adrian Ludwig, Chief Information Security Officer, Atlassian. "Given the rapid pace of cloud adoption, it's vital that business can quickly identify those cloud providers whose security practices align with theirs."

The inaugural Trusted Cloud Providers will be announced at CSA's premier annual conference, SECtember (Seattle, Sept 13-17, 2021). Enterprises interested in achieving the Trusted Cloud Providers designation should begin the process now in order to be included in the inaugural group.