(non-accredited certificate or referenced on the ISO/IEC 27001 certificate as covering additional requirements) 

ISO/IEC 27017 Certification is the international benchmark for information security in cloud environments. As a code of practice specifically designed for cloud, it extends ISO/IEC 27001 and provides clear guidance to both cloud providers (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and cloud customers (organizations consuming cloud services). In a landscape shaped by multi-cloud strategies, rapid SaaS adoption and increasing regulatory demands, ISO/IEC 27017 helps define roles, responsibilities and controls in a measurable and auditable manner. 

For IT managers, compliance officers and Product/DevOps teams, certification functions as a “common language” that strengthens customer trust and accelerates B2B collaboration. 

What is ISO/IEC 27017? 

ISO/IEC 27017:2015 was published in September 2015 as a supplement to ISO/IEC 27002, providing implementation guidance for information security controls in cloud environments. Beyond interpreting generic controls, it introduces additional cloud-specific controls such as tenant segregation, virtual machine hardening, protection of the management plane, alignment of cloud SLAs/OLAs, and clarity in the shared responsibility model (what belongs to the provider versus the customer). 

Its objective is to reduce risks such as data leakage, account takeover and misconfiguration, and to improve governance of cloud services across the full lifecycle (design → development → operation → retirement). 

Requirements for ISO 27017 Certification 

A prerequisite for ISO/IEC 27017 Certification is an existing ISO/IEC 27001 certification (or simultaneous implementation). The audit evaluates: 

  • Cloud policies & governance: cloud security policy, risk and change management, supplier and SLA governance 
  • Access management: IAM, least privilege, MFA, segregation of duties, API tokens/keys 
  • Human resources: screening where applicable, roles and responsibilities, awareness of cloud risks 
  • Business continuity & resilience: backup/restore, geo-redundancy, disaster recovery objectives 
  • Applicability to both providers and customers: 
  • Providers demonstrate secure delivery and operation of cloud services 
  • Customers demonstrate proper consumption and governance of cloud services 

Certification Process 

  1. Readiness assessment (gap analysis): define scope (services/regions/tenants) and identify gaps 
  1. Implementation of measures: policies, procedures, technical controls and alignment with the shared responsibility model 
  1. Internal audit & Management Review: verification of effectiveness 
  1. External audit (Stage 1 & Stage 2) by an accredited certification body: evidence review, interviews, sampling 
  1. Certificate issuance (typically a 3-year cycle with annual surveillance audits) and continual improvement 

Key Areas & Controls of ISO 27017 

  • Access & Identity: IAM, MFA, secret rotation, session management for consoles/CLI, API security 
  • Tenant Segregation: logical/technical customer separation, isolation controls, resource tagging 
  • Virtualization & Workload Hardening: hardened images, baseline configurations, patching, agent health 
  • Management Plane Security: console protection, break-glass accounts, logging and auditing of admin actions 
  • Data Lifecycle: classification, encryption at rest/in transit, key management (KMS/HSM), secure disposal 
  • Monitoring & Incident Response: log collection, SIEM/CSPM, runbooks for cloud-specific incidents 
  • Business Continuity: resilient architecture, RTO/RPO, chaos testing where appropriate 
  • Shared Responsibility Model: clear allocation of responsibilities in SLAs/OLAs to eliminate grey areas 

Benefits of Certification 

  • Enhanced trust: tangible evidence of cloud security best practices 
  • Compliance & GDPR support: clearer documentation of measures, roles and data flows across IaaS/PaaS/SaaS 
  • Risk and incident cost reduction: prevention of misconfiguration errors, improved visibility and detection 
  • Commercial differentiation: faster sales cycles and increased trust in RFPs and regulated sectors 
  • Transparency toward third parties: clear SLAs, evidence-based due diligence and easier third-party audits 

ISO 27017 vs Other Standards 

  • ISO/IEC 27001: general ISMS for information security 
  • ISO/IEC 27017: specialization of controls for cloud environments (providers & customers) 
  • ISO/IEC 27018: focus on protection of PII in public cloud (privacy) 

Implementation & Best Practices 

  • Risk management per workload: data classification and threat modeling for cloud architectures 
  • Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and continuous auditing of misconfigurations 
  • DevSecOps & Infrastructure as Code (IaC): pipeline controls, policy-as-code, secrets outside code 
  • Key & secret management: KMS, rotation, least privilege between services 
  • DLP & Zero Trust: data exfiltration controls, context-aware access 
  • Training for Cloud, SRE, Dev and Security teams on shared responsibility and secure patterns 
  • Dashboards & KPIs: coverage, mean time to detect/respond, baseline drift, patch latency 

Cost & Certification Renewal 

The cost of ISO 27017 Certification depends on size and complexity, number of cloud services/accounts/regions, multi-cloud scope, data volumes and regulatory requirements. The overall budget typically includes: 

  • Implementation (policies, procedures, architecture, tooling) 
  • Possible consultancy support 
  • Audit days for certification and annual surveillance audits 

The certificate is valid for three years and maintained through annual surveillance audits and continual improvement. Combining ISO 27017 with ISO/IEC 27001 reduces overlap and overall cost. 

ISO 27017 in Specific Sectors 

  • Healthcare: protection of patient data and prevention of PHI leakage in SaaS/EHR. 
  • Finance: alignment with regulatory requirements, enhanced logging/monitoring and resilience. 
  • SMBs & Scale-ups: scalable implementation of controls, “just-enough” documentation, fast time-to-value.
  • SaaS vendors: transparency in due diligence, clear SLAs and differentiation in international markets.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 

ISO/IEC 27017 covers cloud security controls for both cloud providers and cloud customers. ISO/IEC 27018 focuses specifically on the protection of personally identifiable information (PII) in public cloud environments and addresses privacy-related requirements.

Yes. You need an existing ISO/IEC 27001 certification or a combined ISO/IEC 27001 + ISO/IEC 27017 certification.

Typically 2–4 months for mature organizations with an established ISMS. More complex multi-cloud environments may require additional time.

Cloud providers and SaaS companies, organizations operating in regulated sectors (such as finance and healthcare), and those pursuing international B2B contracts. 

It provides clear documentation of cloud security measures and responsibilities, and improves traceability in the handling of personal data in cloud environments (without replacing GDPR obligations).

Why choose Q-CERT for ISO/IEC 27017 Certification 

The certification body Q-CERT provides specialized auditors in cloud security and ISO standards, with extensive experience across Greek and European organizations. In addition, as the only Greek accredited Conformity Assessment Body that certifies trust services under the eIDAS Regulation, we bring the same level of rigor, traceability and high assurance criteria to cloud-related audits. This distinguishes us in the market and strengthens the credibility and international recognition of your certificate. 

Request a quotation or schedule a short introductory call to discuss scope, audit days and cost.