The CloudEthernet Forum Changes Name to Focus on Cloud Services

CloudEthernet Forum (CEF) has experienced a reorganization including adopting a new name, OpenCloud Connect (OCC). The organization promotes close co-operation across a very broad spectrum of cloud stakeholders.

The OpenCloud Connect Forum is a global industry alliance founded to address the need for scaling and enhancing current network technologies to meet the demands of delivering cloud services. The OCC aims to accelerate the use of standardized, open interfaces to make cloud services easier, faster, more secure, and affordable to deploy and manage.

The OpenCloud Connect Forum’s membership comprises Cloud, data center and WAN service providers, SaaS companies plus system integrators, network equipment manufacturers and Cloud business users. Its members include: Alcatel-Lucent; Avaya, Chef, Ciena, Cisco, Citrix, Comcast, CoreSite, Coriant, Cyan, Embrane, Ericsson, Equinix, HP, Huawei, Interxion, Iometrix, Hubble, Huawei, Juniper, Neustar, Nuage Networks, PCCW Global, Spirent, Telx, Tata Communications, Verizon, Veryx, Wedge Networks and others.

With virtual machine populations running into the millions across geographically dispersed datacenters plus the migration of storage networks to Ethernet, the Forum provides a framework for industry stakeholders to collectively develop solutions that address technical challenges such as VLAN scaling, layer 2 performance and resilience across very large domains and consolidating storage network technologies onto Ethernet.

The new name also represents the formation of a new OCC OpenCloud Committee responsible for the work of the OpenCloud Project and the OpenCloud Lab, hosted by Iometrix based in Silicon Valley, California.

The Committee’s first action was to call for members to participate in the OCP by contributing equipment or services to the project. The first public presentation by the Committee in the near future will be included as part of a demonstration at Interop, Las Vegas April 28 - 30. This showcase will provide a full update of results so far, and members are currently collaborating to present the first large scale demonstration of service delivery across multiple providers, networks and equipment providers.