When you hand your AWS environment to a consultancy, you are trusting them with the infrastructure your business runs on. That trust shouldn't rest on a sales pitch, it should rest on credentials that have been independently tested and verified by independent accreditors.
MakeCloud holds Cyber Essentials Plus, are certified by Amazon Web Services as an AWS Advanced Services Partner with a Security Specialisation, and are approved to deliver services through G-Cloud 15 on the UK Government's Digital Marketplace. Each of those sits with a different assessor, tests a different layer of our business, our approach to security and has to be earned rather than claimed.
Here is a breakdown of what each accreditation actually verifies, and why together they give a fuller picture of our approach to cloud security and how that benefits our clients.
Cyber Essentials Plus: independently tested
Cyber Essentials Plus is the more rigorous half of the UK Government's Cyber Essentials scheme. The base-level certificate is self-assessed, but Cyber Essentials Plus requires an independent assessor to run external and internal vulnerability scans and test the deployed systems directly. There's no room to describe a control that isn't actually in place.
Holding Cyber Essentials Plus means an outside party has verified our boundary firewalls, access controls, patch management, malware protection, and device security, and found them sound. It's foundational evidence of the discipline we apply to our own organisation and it’s the same discipline we bring to a client's AWS environments.
For clients, that means, when we design IAM policies, configure encryption, or set up monitoring in your AWS account, it's underpinned by security practices that have already withstood independent scrutiny, not just ones we claim to follow. You are not taking our word for our own security posture, a third party already has.
AWS Advanced Services Partner, Security Specialisation
Advanced Services Partner status isn't awarded for simply using AWS. It requires a demonstrated track record of successful customer engagements, trained and certified technical staff, and delivery capability that AWS reviews directly.
The Security Specialisation sits on top of that tier, and it's assessed separately again. AWS evaluates our expertise specifically in securing AWS workloads - architecture, configuration, identity and access management, encryption, detection and response. All of which is validated against real customer outcomes, not a generic cloud security claim. It's the credential that speaks directly to the cloud security work our clients actually hire us to do, in order to strengthen and future proof their infrastructure as their business grows.
G-Cloud 15: Approved by the UK Government
MakeCloud is also approved to supply through G-Cloud 15, the framework the UK Government's Crown Commercial Service runs to let public sector buyers procure cloud services from vetted suppliers via the Digital Marketplace.
Getting onto G-Cloud isn't automatic. Suppliers go through a compliance and due-diligence process covering company standing, financial health, service documentation and compliance, before Crown Commercial Services approve them. For any organisation evaluating us, public sector or otherwise, it's a further, independently reviewed assurance that MakeCloud delivers cloud services responsibly and to government standards.
For clients, it also means working with us carries less procurement friction, public sector buyers can engage us directly through an approved framework, without running a full separate tender. Additionally, for any client, public or private sector, it provides the same underlying assurance that our processes have already passed government scrutiny.
Multiple credentials, one standard
Collectively these accreditations provide clients confidence that our AWS consultancy is trusted, secure, and held to independently verified standards. Cyber Essentials Plus verifies the organisational hygiene we run on day to day. AWS's Advanced Services Partner status and Security specialisation verify the cloud-specific expertise we bring to a client's environment. G-Cloud 15 verifies that a government body has reviewed how we operate and judged us fit to deliver.
Whichever layer of your AWS environment we are working on, security, compliance, or day-to-day governance, it's backed by standards that have already been independently tested, not just claimed.
If you'd like to discuss how MakeCloud can help improve security, compliance, and governance for your business, get in touch, we’d love to help.
