Update: Session on Standardizations needed for Cloud Storefronts (Sept 21 Session at NCOIC Plenary in Fairfax, Va)

[Bob Marcus]

The GSA has offered to  provide a senior keynote speaker (TBD) for the "Best Practices for Cloud Initiatives using Storefronts" Session hosted at the NCOIC Plenary on September 21 in Virginia. Participation is also being solicited from other groups working on Cloud Initiatives. The Session will provide a unique opportunity for an interactive dialog on the IaaS standardizations needed for future interoperability and portability across Cloud deployments. 

The GSA's Cloud RFQ and procurement timelines (slide 11) are very aggressive. It will be essential to develop some near-term guidelines to avoid the creation of Cloud silos and vendor lock-in. Some possible areas for IaaS standardizations are listed below.

 

* Interfaces to Cloud Resources supporting portability of PaaS tools and SaaS applications
* Interfaces to Cloud Resources supporting interoperability across Clouds
* Sharing and/or movement of virtual computational resources across Clouds
* Data sharing and movement across Clouds
* Authentication and authorization across Clouds

* Messaging to and from Clouds
* Metering, monitoring and management across Clouds

Any feedback on potential standardizations would be valuable. In many areas, it may not be necessary (or possible) to recommend a definitive set of standardizations at this time.  One alternative is for Cloud standards groups and end-users (with input from providers) to develop a consensus on future needed standardizations, define processes for achieving these standardizations, and strongly encourage Cloud providers to support the processes and their outcomes.  It will be important that the standardizations and processes are perceived as vendor-neutral and value-added to both suppliers and customers.