OpenCloud Connect Releases New Open Standards for Cloud Computing

OpenCloud Connect’s new OpenCloud Reference Architecture publication offers a 104 page overview of the organization’s vision for an open testing and iterative standards development program for cloud computing.

OpenCloud Connect (OCC) is an industry organization of cloud service providers, network service providers, equipment manufacturers, system integrators and software developers that are focused on facilitating the $200B cloud services market through open standards development. OCC aims to accelerate the use of standardized, open interfaces to make cloud services easier, faster, more secure, and affordable to deploy and manage.

As an organization, OpenCloud Connect (OCC) focuses on evolving open standards, cloud interoperability and universal APIs for service providers and enterprises to help respond to the challenges created by the proliferation of different APIs and interfaces that network service providers, cloud service providers, data center operators and enterprises currently use to communicate.

The OCC will present its OpenCloud Project Test Bed, based on these new OpenCloud Reference Architecture standards, at the Interop Las Vegas April 28th to 30th which will include a demonstration of OpenCloud service provision across multiple networks and equipment from different vendors.

The OpenCloud Project Test Bed features a number of cloud service players who are working together to evolve standard practices for the delivery of cloud services. With cloud services drawing on multiple new technologies all of which are in a constant state of development, the OpenCloud program is about testing new implementations deployed in a real interconnected, environment while exploring and accelerating solutions to problems that directly impact the business of buying and selling cloud services.

OCC president James Walker, states that, “Where other standards bodies had the space to shape standards in advance of market penetration, cloud computing is already surging ahead in every direction powered by NFV, SDN, virtualization technologies and networking - technologies that are themselves still evolving quickly. Our response is to iteratively develop the OpenCloud Reference Architecture, our OCP Test Bed and standards simultaneously to keep ahead of business needs. The aim is to evolve a fully interworking cloud environment, and the advancement of best practices to manage OTT and cloud services.”

The OpenCloud Reference Architecture publication and OpenCloud Project Test Bed were developed in response to the following challenges facing organizations:

- Trouble getting end-to-end Service Level Agreements (SLAs) across the whole network, compute, storage and data center environments. 

- Network services take weeks to provision, while cloud resources can be turned up in minutes.

- Compliance, regulation and privacy laws demand unified risk management, auditable processes and a properly enforced security policy – nearly impossible in today’s fragmented cloud environment.

- Non-standard attribute reporting makes it hard to monitor performance and respond quickly to traffic spikes and dynamic workloads.

- Increasing reliance on multiple clouds for different services creates demand for services to interface in a standard, secure way.