Tencent Cloud acquires key cloud security standard

Tencent Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Tencent, a provider of internet value-added services in China, today announced its acquisition of the Multi-Tier Cloud Security Standard (MTCS SS), an international security standard essential to the adoption of cloud computing services in Singapore.

Tencent Cloud conforms to Tier 3 of the MTCS SS, the world's first security standard that covers multiple tiers, proving its capability to provide the highest level of security to enterprise cloud users in Singapore, Asia and around the world. 

Launched in Singapore in 2013, the MTCS SS is the world's first cloud security standard with the goal of providing businesses valuable insight to better assess and understand the level of cloud security they require. 

It covers areas including cloud governance, cloud infrastructure security, cloud operations management, cloud service administration, cloud user access, tenancy and customer isolation, data retention, liability, disaster recovery, as well as incident and issue management.

According to Gartner, the global public cloud services market is seen to be growing by 17% in 2020, bringing it to a total of US$266.4 billion, up from $227.8 billion in 2019. 

In addition to the growth of the worldwide market, spending on cloud infrastructure has increased substantially. Globally this expenditure in 2019 exceeded $107 billion, up from $78 billion in 2018, according to Canalys data.

This highlights the unrelenting expansion of the IT industry, driven by digital transformation initiatives across all industries.

Almost 60% of organizations are foreseen to be using cloud-managed services from external service providers by 2022, doubling the percentage compared to statistics from 2018.

"The acquisition of the highest level MTCS SS security standard demonstrates how Tencent Cloud continues to establish itself as one of the world's leading industry players, having helped Tencent move from fifth to fourth place in the Asia-Pacific cloud vendor rankings through landmark projects and solutions," says Tencent International Business Group vice president Poshu Yeung. 

"With the rapid cloud adoption globally, we are proud to receive this international security standard, which adds to our increasingly recognised and adopted cloud offerings in the region. 

"It also emphasises our exceptional capability to host, handle and process highly confidential data, bringing confidence and peace of mind to our enterprise customers."

Tencent Cloud operates in 25 regions and 53 availability zones worldwide and is a part of Tencent's broader strategy to invest in the latest technologies, such as cloud, security, big data and artificial intelligence, to capture the next wave of growth.