Open Standards in Cloud Computing Driven by OCI

The OSCON 2011 Open Source (News - Alert) Convention has been officially launched by Open Cloud Initiative or OCI. Consensus on a set of requirements for Open Cloud can be now reached by the greater cloud computing community of users and providers within the legal framework provided by OSCON. The set of requirements for Open Cloud have been described in the Open Cloud Principles or OCP (News - Alert) document. By way of community consensus, these requirements can be then applied to cloud computing products and services within the legal framework.

A 30-day final comment period on the Open Cloud Principles or OCP has been started by OCI after launching its official website. Without impeding the ability of providers to do business, users are ensured freedom with OCP. By avoiding barriers to entry or exit, OCP focuses on interoperability. Apart from forbidding discrimination, technological neutrality is also ensured.

The specific requirements for Open Standards are defined by OCP. “Multiple full, faithful and interoperable implementations” are called for by OCP by mandating their use for formats and interfaces. The complete details on the Principles are available here.

In a release, Sam Johnston, founder and president of OCI said, “The primary purpose of the Open Cloud Initiative or OCI is to define ‘Open Cloud’ by way of community consensus and advocate for universal adoption of Open Standard formats and interfaces. Inspired by the Open Source Initiative or OSI, we aim to find a balance between protecting important user freedoms and enabling providers to build successful businesses.”

A Board of Directors governs the OCI. These include the cloud computing and Open Source industries’ heads like Rick Clark, Marc Fleischmann, Sam Johnston and Shanley Kane. Shanley Kane, Noirin Plunkett, Evan Prodromou, Sam Ramji, Thomas Uhl, John Mark Walker and Simon Wardley are also on the Board of Directors.

Founded as a California public benefit corporation, the OCI intends to obtain federal tax exemption. This will be done in due course by way of acquiring an educational and scientific charity status.