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The Open Data Center Alliance Service Catalog usage model is by far the most detailed of the publications issued in the first round of requirements.
In many ways, the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) attempts in the Service Catalog (SC) a codification of the real interaction between cloud providers and cloud consumers. Fans of dispelling the hype around cloud computing will delight in this sticky romp through the very practical, “Mary Poppins”-like approach to creating a service catalog. The SC is all about what an API (application programming interface) will provide to large cloud consumers. “…[A] GUI is of relatively low importance to our target Cloud-Subscriber, who may choose not to use it at all for service discovery and selection. Instead, Cloud-Subscribers need a robust and detailed API…to interrogate the Service Catalog.” With this gruff introduction, the SC usage model dives into ten pages of what, roughly, would be entailed in this “robust and detailed API.”
Besides being a refreshingly sober antidote to the often breezy discussion surrounding cloud computing implementation, the SC is a decent primer about just what cloud computing can offer. In detailing the service catalog requirements, the SC touches on nearly every aspect of cloud operations and talks quite frankly about what role IT can play in ensuring that these services are delivered efficiently.
Table of Contents for the Series:
1. IT Users Band Together: a brief introduction to the ODCA 2. Virtual Machine Interoperability 3. Carbon Footprint 4. Security Monitoring 5. Security Provider Assurance 6. Regulatory Framework 7. Standard Units of Measure for IaaS 8. Service Catalog 9. I/O Controls