# Clause 4.2: Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties

Establish who holds a stake in the organization's continuity and what each of them requires of it, covering both stated expectations and the legal and regulatory obligations tied to keeping its products and services going.

Cloud: Your customers, your regulator, your insurer and your own board all have an interest in how you continue to serve them when a provider fails. Cloud contracts rarely satisfy those interests on their own, so the interested-party record has to say what each party expects and where the provider sits in meeting it.

Evidence: Interested party register with the requirement recorded against each party; Register of applicable continuity related legal and regulatory obligations; Evidence both registers are maintained rather than one time artefacts.

Test: Name the parties that would ask about a provider outage and the expectation each one holds.

Citation: ISO 22301:2019, clause 4.2. Source: https://compliance.theartofservice.com/frameworks/iso-22301-2019. Last updated: 2026-10-20.