The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) has appointed Frank Bennett as Deputy Chair. With over three decades of experience in the IT industry, Frank will work alongside CIF’s Chairman, Richard Sykes, and the other members of the team to ensure that the industry body can remain relevant in the rapidly evolving cloud industry.
Frank is a Consultant to IT and Telco companies that go to market with partners and depend on an ecosystem of partners to deliver solutions ‘as-a-service’. He has been involved with a range of actors in the supply chain, including Microsoft, Google, IBM, Avaya, Verizon, Intel, Avnet, VMware and Citrix to name but a few. Previously he served on the Board of EuroCloud for over three years, and is an active advisor to Boards on cyber security and data privacy. He holds the Financial Times Non-Executive Director Professional Diploma and is a member of the Institute of Directors.
CIF has significantly expanded its remit since it was first established in 2009. The industry body provides transparency through certification to a Code of Practice to endorse credible providers of cloud services and, through its Professional CIF Membership and e-learning scheme, assists end users in determining the core information necessary to enable them to adopt such services with confidence.
Already a member of the CIF Governance Board, Frank’s expanded remit as Deputy Chair will see him apply his extensive industry expertise to the CIF Professional Membership scheme, support the CIF team in its educational activities, and guide the industry body’s focus as the cloud industry evolves.
Frank Bennett, Deputy Chair of CIF, commented: “The role that CIF plays in the industry is more important than ever. Cloud adoption is rapidly accelerating and businesses are migrating more and more workloads and in some cases their entire IT estate and are achieving truly transformative changes as a result. More substantive migrations imply more complexity and potentially associated risk, so the guidance and education that CIF can provide to support that change is critical. I’m therefore delighted to assume the role of CIF’s Deputy Chair and look forward to working closely with the rest of the team to build a strong community of industry partners and Professional CIF Membership to deliver on the promise of cloud computing.”
Alex Hilton, CIF’s CEO, added: “Frank brings with him a significant amount of industry-specific expertise, having worked with many of the biggest names in the cloud industry and authored several books on the subject, so he makes a very welcome addition to CIF. CIF has grown considerably since I joined three years ago and we are rapidly ramping up our activity to better support end users on their journey to the cloud and provide more resources aimed at helping Cloud Service Providers better sell and support cloud services. Frank’s guidance on these matters will be invaluable and I’m very pleased to welcome him on board.”
