A juggernaut of the largest tech titans has joined forces to create Trusted Cloud Principles, a united front in the face of diversified international regulations on everything from how data is stored to dealing with increasing demands from law enforcement. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Atlassian, Cisco, IBM, Salesforce and SAP have united in the initiative, which they say seeks to protect customer rights. Meanwhile, a group of leading tech companies has also teamed up to develop a framework of best practices for implementing cloud services with a focus on protecting data.

“Organizations around the world are embracing cloud technology to drive innovation, improve security, and remain competitive in the new digital economy,” reads the Trusted Cloud Principles statement. “As cloud service providers, we are committed to protecting the privacy and security of our customers’ data in all jurisdictions through policy and technology.”

The consortium is committed to “working with governments to ensure digital connectivity among nations, to promote public safety, and to protect privacy and data security in the cloud in line with international human rights norms and the rule of law,” the signatories assert.

Also outlined in the principles, as reported by ZDNet, is the tenet that “governments should create mechanisms to raise and resolve conflicts with each other such that cloud service providers’ legal compliance in one country does not amount to a violation of law in another; and governments should support cross-border data flows.”

The Trusted Cloud Principles come just a few days after a different data cloud framework was announced between Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM and Microsoft along with the EDM Council trade association for data management and analytics. Under that Cloud Data Management Capabilities (CDMC) framework, ZDNet reports six components, 14 capabilities, and 37 sub-capabilities to establish “best practices for cloud, multi-cloud, and hybrid-cloud implementations while also incorporating automated key controls for protecting sensitive data.”

The components include data governance and accountability, cataloging and classification, data accessibility and usage, data protection and privacy, data lifecycle, and technical architecture. The CDMC framework license is available free to EDM Council members and non-members.

“The speed at which businesses are able to respond to change is the difference between those that successfully navigate the future and those that get left behind,” Google Cloud director of product management Evren Eryurek is quoted as saying on ZDNet. “The CDMC framework is going to be a tremendous resource for companies as they continue to accelerate their digital transformation and reimagine their business through effectively leveraging the power of real-time data.”

Details of the Trusted Cloud Principles are available online. The following is an overview:

• Governments Should Engage Customers First, with Only Narrow Exceptions.
• Customers Should Have a Right to Notice.
• Cloud Providers Should Have a Right to Protect Customers’ Interests.
• Governments Should Address Conflicts of Law.
• Governments Should Support Cross-Border Data Flows.