Cloud management standards efforts progress

Distributed Management Task Force announces incubator documents, establishes workgroup.

The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) Monday announced progress in the group’s efforts to create standards for interoperability and manageability in cloud computing environments, advancing an initiative started in 2009 as cloud hype began to escalate.

IT management standards and cloud computing
The DMTF made available two new documents produced by the group’s Open Cloud Standards Incubator. The documents, “Use Cases and Interactions for Managing Cloud” and “Architecture for Managing Clouds,” are meant to describe standardized interfaces and data formats to manage cloud environments.

For instance, the former document, which includes contributors from vendors such as BMC, CA Technologies and Cisco, among many others, explains that “the Open Cloud Standards Incubator addresses the following aspects of the lifecycle of a cloud service: description of the cloud service in a template; deployment of the cloud service into a cloud; offering of the service to consumers; consumer entrances into contracts for the offering; provider operation and management of instances of the service; and removal of the service offering.”

The latter white paper, “Architecture for Managing Clouds,” states that the “lifecycle narrative contained in this document cites example functional interfaces that cloud consumers need to establish with the cloud service provider. This section provides a cloud reference architecture that describes key components such as actors, interfaces, data artifacts and profiles with an indication of interrelationships among these components.”

The companion pieces will be used by the Cloud Management Workgroup (CMWG) to develop a set of standards and an overall architecture for cloud management, according to the DMTF. The goal is to enable service providers and their consumers to create interoperable environments. The CMWG will also be working toward creating cloud service management models and mapping such models to the DMTF’s Open Virtualization Format (OVF) as well as continuing work in other facets of technology such as storage, grid, security and telemanagement.

“While there are a number of cloud management protocols available in the market today, the deliverables produced by DMTF’s Open Cloud Standards Incubator are the first to provide a comprehensive, industry-backed base for interoperable cloud management solutions,” said Winston Bumpus, DMTF President, in a statement.

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