It’s not enough to settle for security. There is a difference between security and what the enterprise is really after when it comes to protecting their data and IT systems — trust.

What’s more, that trust, when it comes to cloud computing, is only going to be gained when cloud providers can answer a few simple questions.

That’s a matter CSC Director of Global Security Solutions Ron Knode calls transparency.

“Security products and services help protect the value what  that you already have,” Ron said in an interview Wednesday. “Trust in the digital domain is the use of security services and products to create new enterprise value (knowing the traditional risk reduction will happen anyway).  We want to know what difference does it make to the enterprise.”

Knode has helped shape the strategy of CSC’s Trusted Cloud Services. Through his research with the Leading Edge Forum (LEF) and industry work groups like CloudAudit.org, Knode has been pushing for standards and protocols that create a two-way dialogue between cloud providers and consumers, a set of expectations and questions to establish trust in the in the technology delivered as a cloud as well as the business relationship between a cloud consumer and cloud provider.

“Trust and security are not the same thing,” Knode said. “Security is simply protective of enterprise value that already exists. Trust, on the other hand, is generating new enterprise value with security services and technologies, knowing that traditional risk reduction will happen as well.

“That comes from knowing that an organization’s residual risk is reduced. When trust is created in the digital domain, digital trust, people become liberated to do more important, more powerful work with greater pay-off. With digital trust, you can use cloud to make business better.”