IBM is a founding sponsor of the Object Management Group's new Cloud Standards Customer Council, which will focus on helping end users adopt cloud computing.
The
Object Management Group has
launched a new
Cloud Standards Customer
Council with IBM as a founding member.
Indeed, the OMG
announced that IBM, CA, Kaavo, Rackspace and Software AG joined the CSCC as
founding sponsors. The Cloud Standards Customer Council is a user-advocacy
group dedicated to accelerating the cloud's successful adoption and drilling
down into the standards, security and interoperability issues surrounding the
transition to the cloud.
Big Blue's
sponsorship of the CSCC coincides with the company's
launch
of the IBM SmartCloud, its new public-cloud offering.
Several
organizations including Lockheed Martin, Citigroup and North Carolina State
University have already joined the council, which was launched April 7, and
will help advance cloud adoption prioritizing key interoperability issues, such
as management, reference architectures, hybrid cloud, as well as security and
compliance.
The council
will complement vendor-led cloud standards efforts and establish a core set of
client-driven requirements to ensure cloud users will have the same freedom of
choice, flexibility, and openness they have with traditional IT environments.
The Cloud Standards Customer Council is open to all user organizations. Membership
is free for qualified user organizations. The membership application is available
at
http://www.cloud-council.org/application.
Vendors may join as sponsors.
As a sponsor,
IBM is inviting all its users to participate in the CSCC and work together in
addressing the challenges faced while implementing cloud computing. The group
will work to lower the barriers for widespread adoption of cloud computing by
helping to prioritize key interoperability issues, such as cloud management,
reference architecture, hybrid clouds, as well as security and compliance.
"To make Open
Cloud successful and reflective of real business needs, IBM is asking for
client feedback regarding their direction and priorities around cloud-standards
development," Angel Diaz, vice president of IBM Software Standards, said in a
statement. "This council is designed to focus on the reality of what provides
the greatest cloud-computing benefits for clients. Ultimately, this effort is
about how organizations can use what they have today and extend their business-using
open standards-to get the greatest benefits from cloud."
The council
will provide cloud users with the opportunity to drive client requirements into
standards-development organizations and deliver materials, such as best
practices and use cases, to assist other enterprises.
"End-users
confront the challenges of implementing cloud on a daily basis. The Cloud
Standards Customer Council will bring together these cloud veterans into a
community where they can discover and disseminate best practices for moving to
and managing the cloud and help to drive standards across industry, both to
end-users and vendors to bring down costs and increase choice," Richard
Mark Soley, chairman and CEO of the OMG, said in a statement.
"North
Carolina State University and IBM have a long-established partnership in cloud-computing
technology, including working together to develop NC State's Virtual Computing
Laboratory, one of the first large-scale examples of cloud computing in an
educational setting," Mladen Vouk, associate vice provost for Information
Technology and head of the Department of Computer Science at NC State, said in
a statement. "We look forward to working with the council partners to
develop standards that will allow greater access to cloud computing by
industry, government agencies, educational institutions and other
organizations."
IBM currently
participates in several cloud standards development efforts in such
organizations as the Distributed Management Task Force, the Organization for
the Advancement of Structured Information Standards and The Open Group. IBM has
also recently contributed a Reference Architecture for Cloud Computing to The Open
Group that will help it align the industry-standards development efforts around
similar work that will be started in other international bodies. In addition,
IBM has actively been a supporter of The Open Cloud Manifesto, which has more
than 400 signers and a mission to open and encourage a dialogue around ensuring
that cloud computing stays open and standards efforts are customer-driven.
"Lockheed
Martin is committed to helping Federal agencies derive real and impactful
benefits by working collaboratively with standards organizations like OMG,
which really makes a difference in awareness and adoption," Melvin Greer,
Lockheed Martin senior Fellow and chief strategist for cloud computing, said in
a statement.
Among other
things, the Cloud Standards Customer Council will drive
customer requirements into the development process to gain acceptance by the Global
2000; deliver
customer-focused content in the form of best practices, patterns, case studies,
use cases and standards roadmaps; influence
the development process for new cloud standards; and facilitate the exchange of real-world stories,
practices, lessons and insights.
"We are
thrilled to work with the Cloud Standards Customer Council and leading global
organizations to help drive customer requirements into the development of
industry standards for cloud computing," Jamal Mazhar, founder and CEO at
cloud-management software vendor Kaavo, said in a statement. "With
perspective from the changing cloud landscape and by collaborating with CSCC,
we can help shape best practices that result in real-world value for thousands
of companies."
"Rackspace
is always working to create new ways to gain customers' feedback so we can provide
fanatical support. The Cloud Standards Customer Council provides us a venue to
follow customers leads on the open cloud," Mark Interrante, vice president
of cloud products at Rackspace, said in a statement.
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