Google Apps for Business gets ISO 27001 certification

Google has attained the ISO 27001 certification for its Google Apps for Business suite, as it strives to get more firms using the cloud-based service.

The ISO 27001 is an internationally accepted, independent security standard, and Google has earned it for systems, technology, processes and datacentres, the firm announced in a blog post.

Companies want transparency and we can now show security is tight and data is protected.

"Google is committed to ongoing development and maintenance of a robust Information Security Management System (ISMS) that an independent, third-party auditor will regularly audit and certify," noted Eran Feigenbaum, director of security at Google Enterprise.

The web giant sees this as a big step, as businesses were previously unable to carry out an audit of Google's datacentres and technology for security reasons.

"Over the last six months our processes, apps and datacentres have been audited by Ernst & Young CertifyPoint, an ISO certification body accredited by the Dutch Accreditation Council and a member of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF)," Adam Swidler, product marketing manager at Google told IT Pro.

"Our certification is robust as we had everything from engineers interviewed to the code within our apps audited. In comparison, other vendors only have their datacentres and infrastructure certified."

Google offers a free 30 day trial of its Apps for Business service, which currently has four million customers worldwide and one million in Europe.

Swidler is confident that the ISO 27001 certification will accelerate the adoption of Google Apps by medium and large enterprises.

"Companies want transparency and we can now show security is tight and data is protected," he added.