The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) issued the second version of its “Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing” whitepaper which 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, and encompasses knowledge gained from real world deployments over the past six months in this fast moving area.

The second version of the guidance tops off a strong inaugural year for the CSA, in which it first published its guidance and, grew to 23 corporate members strong, and joined forces with numerous leading industry groups (such as ISACA, ENISA, the DMTF and the Jericho Forum) to help advance the goal of cloud security.

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.”