Two of the leaders of the Federal Cloud Computing Initiative, Dawn Leaf, NIST Senior Executive for Cloud Computing, and David McClure, GSA Associate Administrator of the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, said building trust between providers and suppliers of cloud computing is a top priority.
Speaking at the Quarterly Meeting of the Cloud Standards Customer Council Summit this week, they addressed members from consumer companies around the world who recognize that a common interoperable platform for the cloud is essential to meet corporate needs today and tomorrow.
Dawn Leaf said she was speaking later in the day to a delegation from Japan and China about progress on the US Federal Cloud Computing Initiative and David McClure said the US Federal TechStats and Portfolio Stats activities need to help CIOs put cloud computing into practice and context. David McClure also said that it was okay for federal agencies (e.g. the new Consumer Protection Agency) to do their own cloud computing procurement as long as it meets the standards.
The CSCC is managed by the Object Management Group (OMG), foundede in 1989, computer industry consortium, that develops standards for enterprise intgration for a wide range of technologies and vertial industries. Richard Soley, President of OMG, said the OMG helps create communities of practice and this one is the fastest growing in their history since it was formed in April of 2011 with about 350 members.
Jean-Francois Junger, Eurpoean Commission representative, spoke about the 2012 EC plan for cloud computing as announced recently by Vice President Nellie Kroes in Davos.
She said: “Cloud computing will change our economy. It can bring significant productivity benefits to all, right through to the smallest companies, and also to individuals. It promises scalable, secure services for greater efficiency, greater flexibility, and lower cost.
Our flagging economies need us to make the best out of this. We cannot afford anything less. We need to act to support speedy uptake of Cloud Computing in Europe.
This time last year I announced my plan to launch a cloud computing strategy that would make Europe not just cloud-friendly but cloud-active.”
Global public sector cloud leaders from the Europe, India, and the UK provided their cloud requirements for security, interoperability, portability, data governance and SLAs. Standards Development Organizations (SDO) reported on their plans related to public sector requirments, cloud providers reported on their offerings, and government representatives spoke about contract and acquisition issues.
The product of this meeting will be outline of standards requirements for the OMG to work on and a next generation platform workstream to challenge participants to develop collaboratively. The proceedings are available. The next quarterly meetings of the CSCC will be June 19 in Cambridge, MA, and December 11, in Burlingame, CA.