Responding to key user challenges faced by member organizations, the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) has released five new usage models on cloud security and infrastructure, as well as a document on identity management in the cloud. In line with the ODCA’s vision, the usage models help to define the IT requirements for open, interoperable cloud computing solutions.
According to the Alliance:
Four of the usage models and an overview document target security, a leading concern for cloud adoption. The security usage models will drive interoperability between identity management and access management systems that will allow users to utilize resources in the cloud as if they were located within the organization. The fifth usage model focuses on long distance virtual machine migration which provides information about enterprises’ expectations for availability, scalability and extendibility of their data via seamless data migration. To view these new releases, please download them at www.opendatacenteralliance.org/ourwork/usagemodels.
It’s the Alliance’s position that the implementation of key cloud computing standards could result in a reduction of $25 billion in annual IT costs within five years. To add weight to this ambitious claim, Alliance members are currently engaging in proof of concept (POC) testing of the proposed solutions. Some of these results will be featured at ODCA Forecast 2012, to be held on June 12 in conjunction with the 10th International Cloud Expo in New York City.
The Open Data Center Alliance formed in 2010 to create a simpler, more efficient path to cloud computing by providing guidance around five major areas: infrastructure, management, security, services, and regulation/ecosystem. Their mission is “to speed the migration to cloud computing by enabling the solution and service ecosystem to address IT requirements with the highest level of interoperability and standards.” The group is led by a steering committee of senior IT executives, while Intel serves as the group’s technical advisor. The full member list includes over three-hundred global IT leaders with a collective purchasing power of over $100 billion.