Answer

What is ISO/IEC 20996?

The short answer, in context

ISO/IEC 20996 is a draft International Standard that gives cloud service customers guidance on business continuity and resilience when using cloud services. It is written for the customer side of cloud, not the provider side. ISO/IEC DIS 20996 is at stage 40.60 (Close of voting), dated 2026-09-24, and the planning date used here is 2027-09-13, an estimate and not an ISO commitment. The draft is 45 pages and is sold by ISO; its text is not public and is not reproduced on this site.

Who is it for?

Cloud service customers: organisations that buy cloud services and have to keep their own business running when those services fail.

Is it a management system standard?

ISO describes it as guidance. The continuity management system it builds on is ISO 22301, which is published and held here.

Which committee writes it?

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 38, the cloud computing subcommittee.

Is it the same as ISO 22301?

No. ISO 22301 is the published continuity management system standard. 20996 is cloud-specific guidance for customers.

What to do next

Run the free check, then read the register for the clauses behind each answer. The timeline carries every recorded stage and the ones still to come.

Source: ISO/IEC DIS 20996 record, read 2026-10-20. Last updated: 2026-10-20.