To enable interoperable cloud application development
The Storage Networking Industry Association last week announced its foray into cloud networking with the introduction of the Cloud Data Management Interface, a standard architecture.
Cloud: ready or not?
CDMI, as the SNIA calls it, is an open standard that will allow interoperable cloud storage implementations between storage vendors and cloud service providers such as Amazon, Nirvanix and EMC Atmos.
The standard is intended to present a common data exchange format vendors and service providers can use to build interoperable cloud environments and for moving data securely from cloud to cloud. CDMI is based on a RESTful HTTP protocol and requires adopters to create strong access controls for the encryption of data on storage media and within cloud environments that accommodate multiple tenants.
Hopefully, CDMI will be adopted by the nascent cloud industry, who are developing products for the cloud. Vendors will quickly decide whether to adopt CDMI as part of their efforts, and hopefully make it a better success than SNIA’s Storage Management Interface Specification (SMIS).
In addition, the SNIA also announced this week that it has recently enhanced its SMI-S Conformance Testing Program to test functionality and identify products that correspond to buyer’s needs. Four vendors are now CTP certified – EMC, HP, Hitachi Data Systems and Brocade.
