The non-profit Trusted Cloud Skills Network was formed following the expiry of the Trusted Cloud subsidy scheme run by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) in 2015. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) now acts as the patron of this network.

Services offered by Trusted Cloud include:

• The www.trusted-cloud.de website is an information platform that focuses on the use of cloud services. With guides, checklists and usage examples, the platform covers the entire lifecycle of cloud use, and is rounded off by a catalogue of information about standards and industry good practice.
• Trusted Cloud also offers the Trusted Cloud label, which is based on its own criteria catalogue. To be awarded the label, cloud providers must satisfy all aspects of this criteria catalogue and self-report full details of their compliance. Trusted Cloud then reviews this report as part of an independent audit process.
• All of the cloud providers who have been awarded the Trusted Cloud label are listed on the website. The cloud services themselves are also described in great detail.
• There is also a list of service providers (such as consultants), who fulfil the transparency criteria as specified by Trusted Cloud.

Trusted Cloud is intended for small and medium-sized businesses, both as cloud providers and cloud users. In contrast, Cloud Computing Compliance Criteria Catalogue (C5) is aimed at medium-sized and large cloud providers and their business customers. In principle, however, neither catalogue is restricted to its target markets.

The criteria catalogue for Trusted Cloud comprises aspects of data security as well as quality and transparency criteria, data protection and contract drafting. The Cloud Computing Compliance Criteria Catalogue (C5) focuses almost exclusively on information security (and transparency) and, when compared with the Trusted Cloud criteria catalogue, is much more comprehensive, states more explicit security requirements and requires a higher level of security if the minimum requirements from both catalogues are compared with one another. The nature and scope of auditing is also much more extensive with the Cloud Computing Compliance Criteria Catalogue (C5), enabling a much more detailed statement to be made about security. For its part, the Trusted Cloud criteria catalogue covers more aspects that are of interest for cloud users.

In this respect, the two catalogues complement rather than compete with one another.