* The Open Cloud Standards Incubator is working to develop specifications for an industry standard
Many organizations are taking an interest in the cloud computing model. However, the fear of vendor lock-in and the lack of interoperability standards are making some companies hesitate. The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) is tackling the problem with a new incubator task force designed to develop a set of informational specifications for cloud resource management. These specifications could lead to interoperability standards within twelve months. Read more to see what’s in it for you.
The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) recently announced the formation of an incubator dedicated to addressing the need for open management standards for cloud computing. The Open Cloud Standards Incubator will work to develop a set of informational specifications for cloud resource management. These specifications could lead to interoperability standards within twelve months.
The work of the Open Cloud Standards Incubator will focus on ways to facilitate operations between private clouds within enterprises and other private, public or hybrid clouds by improving the interoperability between platforms through open cloud resource management standards. The group also aims to develop specifications to enable cloud service portability and provide management consistency across cloud and enterprise platforms.
This is good news for companies that are considering the deployment of important applications in the cloud. A set of internationally recognized standards would ease the fear of vendor lock-in and reduce the cost of managing applications.
The authors of the February 2009 University of California Berkeley report Above the Clouds: A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing write “cloud computing has the potential to transform a large part of the IT industry.” They also caution that one of the top 10 obstacles to the growth of this model of computing is data lock-in – being unable to move your applications from one cloud host to another. A solution to this obstacle, according to the report, is standardized APIs. This happens to be one of the goals of the DMTF’s efforts.
Winston Bumpus, president of the DMTF and Director of Standards Architecture at VMWare, says IT standards are important in increasing choice, reducing costs and improving operability in the data center. Bumpus says the incubator is going to be building on the DMTF’s new Open Virtualization Format (OVF), a set of systems management standards for virtualized environments.
“The OVF is an important building block for cloud interoperability,” says Bumpus. “It’s a packaging format for deploying virtual machines. When you are dealing with Infrastructure-as-a-Service in a cloud space, it’s critically important to be able to package up virtual machines and applications and move them between data centers in a consistent platform-independent and secure way.”
Bumpus says the members of the incubator will develop specifications for standards on protocols and APIs for intercloud management, and federated trust and security in a cloud environment. This may include extensions to existing DMTF specifications including, the Common Information Model (CIM), OVF, and Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) protocols. The incubator also will investigate opportunities for collaboration with other industry standards bodies, especially those dealing with security. “DMTF isn’t a security standards body per se, but because security is a part of cloud computing, we’ll leverage what other standards bodies have done,” says Bumpus.
In terms of developing specifications for an industry standard, the incubator is working on a short time frame of about twelve months. But just like a business incubator, the Open Cloud Standards Incubator is being given the resources to ramp up quickly to bring the specs, and ultimately the standards, to market quickly. The team will focus on a specific set of deliverables, including:
• Cloud taxonomy – a set of terms and definitions.
• A cloud Interoperability whitepaper.
• Informational specifications, including:
– Proposed OVF changes for cloud usage.
– Proposed Profiles (e.g., APIs and protocols) for management of resources exposed by a cloud.
– Proposed changes to other DMTF standards.
• Requirements for trust for cloud resource management.
• Work register(s) with appropriate alliance partners.
If all goes well, says Bumpus, a set of specifications will come out of the incubator and go into the DMTF standards. Then they will go to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for international recognition and standing.
So, why should you care about all of this? What’s in it for the average IT department?
For one thing, chances are good that cloud computing is in your future as a computing model. The UC Berkeley report says we’re in a “perfect storm” situation for cloud computing for a number of reasons, including new technology trends and business models, and new opportunities. While cloud computing (utility computing) wasn’t wholly successful in the past, the conditions are right today to allow it to take off.
Whether your organization dips its toe or dives in completely to the cloud computing model, you will certainly appreciate the benefits of management standards and interoperability:
• Increased IT flexibility and choice, giving you the power to choose the mix of solutions that best meet your business needs.
• Decreased management complexity through the use of uniform tools and consistent processes.
• Reduced IT management costs through increased automation and more powerful tools.
“Today, if a customer makes a commitment in one area of cloud computing, it’s very difficult for them to move,” says Bumpus. “Customers need the agility to do rapid provisioning and more dynamic computing. [Through the new standards] customers will gain the ability to do new things in a rapid fashion. In the end, they’ll be more efficient, and this will help to grow our economy.”
Bumpus says there are several ways that customers can get involved in the development of the specifications and standards. User organizations and government agencies are welcome to join the DMTF and the Open Cloud Standards Incubator. If you don’t want to join, you can provide your feedback to the specs once they are issued. And, you can demand that your vendors support the standards to increase your flexibility and choices.
For more information about the Open Cloud Standards Incubator, click here.
