Cloudgrade

Cloudgrade is a framework and cloud-based service designed to provide standardized assessment and grading of cloud services and providers. It combines quantitative metrics and qualitative reviews to produce an overall grade that reflects performance, reliability, security, interoperability, and cost efficiency. The goal is to enable buyers to compare offerings across providers and to encourage best practices in cloud design and operations.

The core components of Cloudgrade include an evaluation engine, data-collection modules (such as agents, API integrations, and public telemetry), a scoring model, and a user-facing dashboard. The framework relies on open standards for data exchange and supports customizable assessment templates for different industries or regulatory environments. Cloudgrade is intended to be interoperable with existing cloud management and procurement tools and can be deployed as a hosted service or integrated into private cloud environments.

Evaluation criteria cover several domains. Performance metrics include latency, throughput, and service level objective adherence. Reliability considerations encompass uptime, mean time to recovery, and failover capabilities. Security and privacy assessments evaluate encryption, access controls, identity management, and compliance with recognized standards (for example, ISO 27001 and SOC 2). Governance and portability address data export, vendor neutrality, and ease of cloud-to-cloud migration. Cost efficiency examines pricing transparency, total cost of ownership, and resource utilization. Environmental impact may be included through energy usage and carbon intensity metrics.

History and status: Cloudgrade has been discussed within cross-industry standardization efforts and published benchmark methodologies since the late 2010s, with ongoing updates to reflect evolving cloud capabilities and regulatory requirements. Adoption varies by organization, and ongoing discussions address data collection requirements and scoring fairness.