Boston, Massachusetts and Appenzell, Switzerland-- GMC Software Technology, the standard in customer communications, today announced that the company has joined the Cloud Standards Customer Council, an end user advocacy group dedicated to accelerating cloud's successful adoption. As a member, GMC will have the ability to influence the development process for new cloud standards as well as drive customer requirements to gain acceptance by the Global 2000.

The Cloud Standards Customer Council is dedicated to accelerating cloud's successful adoption and drilling down into the standards, security and interoperability issues surrounding the transition to the cloud. The Council will provide cloud users with the opportunity to drive client requirements into standards development organizations and deliver materials such as best practices to assist other enterprises. The Council has over 160 member companies.

"We look forward to the responsibilities that our membership with the Cloud Standards Customer Council brings," said Hansruedi Jörg, Vice President, Worldwide Business Development at GMC Software Technology. "In addition, we hope we can be a valuable contributor in driving the standards process and the exchange of real-world practices, insights and thought leadership."

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), cloud computing will continue to reshape the IT landscape over the next five years. Spending on public IT cloud services continues to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.6%, from $21.5 billion in 2010 to $72.9 billion in 2015.