The CloudTrust Protocol (CTP) is the mechanism by which cloud service consumers (also known as “cloud users” or “cloud service owners”) ask for and receive information about the elements of transparency as applied to cloud service providers. The primary purpose of the CTP and the elements of transparency is to generate evidence-based confidence that everything that is claimed to be happening in the cloud is indeed happening as described, …, and nothing else. This is a classic application of the definition of digital trust. And, assured of such evidence, cloud consumers become liberated to bring more sensitive and valuable business functions to the cloud, and reap even larger payoffs. With the CTP cloud consumers are provided a way to find out important pieces of information concerning the compliance, security, privacy, integrity, and operational security history of service elements being performed “in the cloud”.
These important pieces of information are known as the “elements of transparency”, and they deliver testimony about essential security configuration and operational characteristics for systems deployed in the cloud. The elements of transparency empower the cloud consumer with the right information to make the right choices about what processing and data to put in the cloud or leave in the cloud, and to decide which cloud is best suited to satisfy processing needs. This is the nature of digital trust, and reinforces again why such reclaimed transparency is so essential to new enterprise value creation. Transparency of certain important elements of information is at the root of digital trust, and thus the source of value capture and payoff.