The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), the industry body whose aim is to raise standards and improve transparency in the cloud sector, has partnered with Assuredata, a GDPR Practitioner, and Federation Against Software Theft (FAST), to launch a new training scheme to raise awareness to the cloud industry of the requirements to comply with GDPR.
Every UK firm has until 25 May 2018 to ensure GDPR compliance and to mitigate themselves against the risk of large fines from the ICO, which could be up to four per cent of an organisation’s total annual turnover. The new course will remove the confusion around GDPR and provide organisations with clarity as to the needs to passing the requirements and provide a plan of action for businesses to ensure security.
According to CIF’s latest research, end user cloud adoption increased from 49% to 78% last year and 75% of cloud users expect to increase their usage. Employees using cloud solutions need to ensure that they have good practise before the regulation is active and these courses are designed to ensure that all employees have awareness of the risks inherent in today's data world.
FAST, as the foremost UK advisor on software and license compliancy, sees recommending GDPR awareness to its members and the industry as a duty of care to the inherent risks of any software that holds people’s data. FAST is endorsing Assuredata GDPR training as a highly recommended step of best practise in data handling.
Attendees of the course will also receive half price CIF personal membership, these services are designed to help educate, inform, guide, validate and support each member group in achieving their organisational and individual goals.
Ian Moyse Board Advisor at Assuredata commented: "We are pleased that these industry bodies are supporting our approach to simplify GDPR for the average business and provide them an affordable packaged way to get informed and empowered to become compliant. We have seen some organisations pushing three-day, expensive courses and others stating that every company will need a data protection officer. We believe that informed businesses can better decide what their reality is and take action to do what is needed in the best interest of themselves and their customers in the most practical and affordable way. We are seeing great interest in these courses and will be growing the schedule availability as well as rolling out through other regional training partners to make it even easier for businesses to attend."
Alex Hilton, CEO of the Cloud Industry Forum said: "The majority of UK businesses are either unaware or unprepared for GDPR. Assuredata’s training programme is a step towards ensuring greater comprehension and readiness for this important regulation. It is important that businesses start this journey now to allow plenty of unrushed time to get this right and to fit it in alongside the day to day running of their business. This should not be made a hard or expensive task and we really like the open and pragmatic approach of Assuredata's packaged training, giving a business the knowledge, comfort, guidance and tools on a plate for a very reasonable price."
Julian Heathcote Hobbins, General Counsel & Deputy Chairman, FAST said: “GDPR compliance is legally essential to ensure that all businesses are protecting their employee and customers’ data appropriately. Many businesses don’t know where to turn or what to do in preparation for the May 2018 deadline, so getting training from a qualified GDPR Practitioner such as Assuredata is vital to set them on the right path."
