The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) has issued the second version of its “Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing”.

The whitepaper, outlines key issues and provides advice for both Cloud Computing customers and providers within 13 strategic domains. Version 2.1 provides more concise and actionable guidance across all domains. It has also attemted to define cloud computing which is a very good step given the confusion and sometimes crop up in this hotly debated and talked about technology.,

The alliance is now 23 corporate members strong.

CSA co-founders Nils Puhlmann and Jim Reavis extended their gratitude to the numerous contributors that have made these efforts possible. “We would like to thank the numerous industry experts who have come together to make this Alliance a productive, valuable resource to the IT community. While we are still early in our efforts, we have made enormous strides in this first year, and look forward to further delivering on our charter to create additional best practices for practitioners and the industry, as the Cloud Computing landscape continues to rapidly grow and evolve.”

The CSA's report tackles cloud security on 13 different fronts, from governance issues like e-discovery, compliance and audits to operational concerns such as disaster recovery, application security and identity management. It updates an original edition released in April.

The guidance whitepaper is available online at www.cloudsecurityalliance.org/guidance.