IN THIS CHAPTER

Seeking standards

Finding open-source initiatives

Discovering free resources from your favorite vendors

You can find many resources that will help you find out more about cloud computing. There are standards organizations that enjoy wide participation from the most important companies in the cloud market. There are organizations benefiting from the participation of companies on the leading edge of implementing hybrid cloud services within their companies and that are eager to help guide your way. In addition, you can find open-source offerings that are helpful in moving the market forward. Of course, all the vendors in the market have research, papers, and best practices that they’re happy to share. In this chapter, we offer you some practical ideas on where to go for resources that can really help.

Standards Organizations

For cloud computing to meet requirements and stability of enterprises across industries, it needs standards. Luckily, a number of important organizations are working hard at bringing vendors together to help the process evolve. Here are two you should play attention to.

• National Institute of Standards and Technology: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a U.S. government agency that focuses on emerging standards efforts. This organization has done a considerable amount of work defining and providing good information on cloud computing. Check out its website at www.nist.gov/itl/cloud.
• OASIS: OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, is a global consortium focused on the creation and adoption of standards for electronic business. The consortium is a nonprofit organization that relies on contributions from its member organizations. OASIS creates topic-specific committees that are beginning to focus on cloud computing. Check out its site at www.oasis-open.org.

Creating standards takes a lot of work — often volunteer, financially uncompensated work by dedicated people determined to get things right. People who sit on standards committees deserve the undying gratitude of the rest of us. We thank you, standards committee members.

Consortiums and Councils

There are important organizations that are not strictly standards bodies. These organizations work closely with vendors and standards groups to move requirements along.

• Cloud Standards Customer Council: The Cloud Standards Customer Council (CSCC) is a combination of vendor and large corporate customers. It was established to focus on cloud best practices. Today, the organization includes more than 100 of the world’s leading organizations, including Lockheed Martin, Citigroup, State Street, and North Carolina State University. It is operated by the Object Management Group (OMG). Check out its website at www.cloud-council.org.

  OMG Cloud Workin Group: The OMG Cloud Working Group (CWG) takes over the mission of the CSCC, an OMG-managed program that launched in 2011 and published 28 deliverables over the course of its operation. It publishes vendor-neutral guidance on important considerations for cloud computing adoption, highlighting standards, opportunities for standardization, cloud customer requirements, and best practices to foster an ecosystem of open, standards-based cloud computing technologies.

  CWG will maintain and update these papers. For more information, watch the webinar, Introducing the OMG Cloud Working Group.

• The Open Group: The Open Group is a global consortium that enables the achievement of business objectives through IT standards. With more than 400 member organizations, it has a diverse membership that spans all sectors of the IT community — customers, systems and solutions suppliers, tool vendors, integrators, and consultants, as well as academics and researchers. The group has a cloud working group and has lots of good source material available. Check out its website at www3.opengroup.org.

Open-Source Offerings

Open source has become incredibly important, especially as a foundation for cloud computing. There is consistent support, for example, for Linux as the foundation for most of the cloud platforms. Therefore, open-source offerings, such as the following, are playing an increasingly important role.

• The Apache Foundation (ASF): This nonprofit corporation was founded in 1999 to support a variety of projects for the open-source developer community. The group offers software that is distributed as free under an Apache License. All projects are managed by active technical experts.
• The Linux Foundation: The Linux Foundation is the nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading technology companies and developers from around the world. The Linux Foundation promotes the platform and works with those vendors and customers that leverage Linux. Check out the Linux Foundation at www.linuxfoundation.org.
• The Eclipse Foundation: The Eclipse Foundation is an open-source community focused on providing a vendor-neutral open development platform and application frameworks for building software. It’s a nonprofit organization and has widespread participation from developers and corporations around the globe. The Eclipse platform is written in Java and runs on most popular operating systems, including Linux, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, QNX, Mac OS X, and Windows. Check out the Eclipse Foundation at www.eclipse.org.

• Open Cloud Computing Interface: The Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI; http://occi-wg.org) is made up of a set of open community-led specifications delivered through the Open Grid Forum. The group is based on its development of a protocol and API for all types of management tasks.

  OCCI was originally initiated to create a remote management API for IaaS-based services, allowing for the development of interoperable tools for common tasks including deployment, autonomic scaling, and monitoring. It has since evolved into a flexible API with a strong focus on integration, portability, interoperability, and innovation, while still offering a high degree of extensibility.

  The current release of the Open Cloud Computing Interface is compatible with many other models in addition to IaaS, including, for example, PaaS and SaaS.

• OpenStack: OpenStack is an open-source platform originated by Rackspace and NASA for building both public and private clouds. It is supported by more than 150 companies. The organization has hundreds of different initiatives underway. Check out its website at http://openstack.org. The group also has a Wiki which can be found at http://wiki.openstack.org/.

The Cloud Security Alliance

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) was established to promote the use of best practices for providing and ensuring security within cloud computing, and to educate people about the uses of cloud computing to help secure all other forms of computing. Check out its website at https://cloudsecurityalliance.org.

The Cloud Storage Initiative

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is a trade organization focused on the networked storage industry. The cloud storage initiative focuses on the needs for cloud storage standards. Its strategic goal is to lead the storage industry worldwide in developing and promoting standards, technologies, and educational services to empower organizations in the management of information. Check out its website at www.snia.org.

Vendor Sites

All the major cloud computing vendors provide great resources online. We recommend checking out vendors such as Google, VMware, Dell, Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, HP, Cisco, Salesforce.com, ServiceNow, and Oracle. Consulting firms and systems integrators, such as Accenture, Wipro, Cognizant, and Deloitte, also offer content that will help provide perspective about cloud computing services and industry best practices.

This is only a partial list. Hundreds of vendors are in the space, so don’t stop with this list; check sites of all the vendors we mention throughout the book. You can find great resources on systems integrators’ sites. Take advantage.

Cloud Computing Conferences

One of the best ways to learn about what is happening in cloud computing is to go to one of the conferences. Since cloud computing has become so ubiquitous almost all conferences provide lots of meaningful sessions about cloud computing. There are local meet-ups that allow you to get together with other interested parties to exchange ideas.

CIO.gov

CIO.gov is the website of the U.S. CIO (chief information officer) and the Federal CIO Council, serving as a central resource for information on federal IT. By showcasing examples of innovation, identifying best practices, and providing a forum for federal IT leaders, CIO.gov keeps the public informed about how our government is working to close the technology gap between the private and public sectors. Check out its website at www.cio.gov.

Open Data Center Alliance

The Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) is an independent organization that is developing a unified vision for cloud requirements — particularly focused on open, interoperable solutions for secure cloud federation, automation of cloud infrastructure, common management, and transparency of cloud service delivery. Check out its website at www.opendatacenteralliance.org.