ISO certification part of Telstra's continuing cloud investment

Pratley said Telstra's data storage services had long been compliant to the ISO27001 international standard for information security management and now Telstra's utility and dedicated cloud computing platforms, backup and recovery service, associated operational systems and tools had been assessed as compliant to the strict standard.

The cloud market

"The cloud market, in particular infrastructure-as-a-service, represents a new approach to how IT is delivered for organisations and Telstra is very serious about making sure our cloud computing platform is not just secure however independently audited, giving our clients the confidence their data and applications are protected and safe.

According to Pratley, as more organisations look to gain efficiency and cost savings by utilising cloud computing, it is moreover critical to ensure information and security management practices are compliant with international standards, "providing surety that critical information remains secure."

Top priority for businesses adopting cloud services

"Obviously security remains a top priority for businesses adopting cloud services. A recent Telstra survey of 700 large organisations had two thirds indicate they are looking to significantly invest in cloud computing this year and more than 80 per cent of all organisations rated security as very important," Pratley said.

Think again. Most businesses only have PART of a DR plan - and this spells business disaster when all is said and done of an IT disaster.