I was just informed of an interesting cloud security alliance created by Nils Puhlmann & Jim Reavis. I can't help but wonder if anyone is going to complain that they did they did this without community involvement? Regardless, this seems like a great idea.

In a post , Chris Hoff takes steps to address any similarities to the Open Cloud Manifesto. "The key difference between the two efforts relates to the CSA’s engagement and membership by both providers and consumers of Cloud Services and the organized non-profit structure of the CSA. The groups are complimentary in nature and goals."

Nice going guys!

According to the CSA site.

The CSA is a non-profit organization formed to promote the use of best practices for providing security assurance within Cloud Computing, and provide education on the uses of Cloud Computing to help secure all other forms of computing.

The Cloud Security Alliance is comprised of many subject matter experts from a wide variety disciplines, united in our objectives:

• Promote a common level of understanding between the consumers and providers of cloud computing regarding the necessary security requirements and attestation of assurance.
• Promote independent research into best practices for cloud computing security.
• Launch awareness campaigns and educational programs on the appropriate uses of cloud computing and cloud security solutions.
• Create consensus lists of issues and guidance for cloud security assurance.

The Cloud Security Alliance will be launched at the RSA Conference 2009 in San Francisco, April 20-24, 2009.

• Cloud Security: Introducing The Virtual Machine Trojan