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The Distributed Management Task Force's efforts to develop a standard interface for cloud computing attract key players, promise results sooner.
By Denise Dubie
In April 2009, the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) launched its Open Cloud Standards Incubator to begin work on developing interoperability standards for cloud providers. The efforts thus far delivered several white papers detailing uses cases, architecture and service models for cloud computing and recently resulted in the formation of the Cloud Management Workgroup (CMWG). DMTF President Winston Bumpus says the momentum of the standards work is strong, thanks in part to key players coming to the table and agreeing to collaborate on interoperability – even with competitors.
Can you tell me a bit about the progress the DMTF has made with cloud computing standards in the past year?
We have been working on this incubator for a little more than 12 months. The intent was always to get the industry together and look at how we can solve interoperability issues around cloud computing. Our efforts are particularly focused around Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) because that is where the DMTF has been focused in the past. It enables us to take what we have already done in the realm of servers, storage and virtualization management and just move it up to the next level. We are really all about distributed infrastructure management so extending standards to the cloud is a natural next step for us.
What specifically is the DMTF targeting in its work on cloud standards?
We saw three things as problems we had to attack at a high level: portability, security and interoperability.
Can you elaborate on those areas of focus?
Portability is about being able to move workloads around in the cloud. We have made great progress on the Open Virtualization Format [OVF] and that really has become the de facto standard for most of the cloud APIs available today. The vendors are using OVF. For instance, Rackspace’s OpenStack uses OVF. Now we need to make sure that we put extensions on OVF, originally developed for virtualization, to work in the cloud.
Security is always a concern it seems. How does it differ in the cloud and what is the DMTF’s focus?
Security is always a big concern for customers so we took this on early as something we need to address. Then the Cloud Security Alliance was formed. We at the DMTF thought that group had a great approach in that it was not about developing new standards but defining best practices to implement security. The group also has some of the best cyber-security folks engaged in this activity. Security is a whole spectrum ranging from intrusion detection to authentication and this group has broken it down into some 13 different domains and best practices. We are leveraging that work and forming an alliance with them.
And interoperability?
Interoperability has to do with the APIs out there. And to be honest with you, the ones out there aren’t all that different. They are RESTful, meaning they use REST, and they are all very similar in that facet. In September 2009, VMware introduced its vCloud API specification and in November Fujitsu released an API, followed by Telefonica’s TCloud API. And now Oracle just released its API in July. They are all similar, RESTful and all use OVF. And they all submitted them to the DMTF.
While the vendors develop APIs, what is the DMTF working on?
We have been working on the architecture and other pieces, and we are in really good shape. We released a white paper in December and now two key documents around use cases and architectures. If you put it all together we have about 150 pages of specifications and collaborative work with contributions from an impressive list of companies and folks engaged in this activity. We thought it would be important to get a taxonomy and the problem we are trying to solve agreed upon in the industry, with the help of key players.
What’s the next step?
These documents that detail the common architectures and common taxonomy are fundamental to the work we are going to do. The Incubator is no more because we started in earnest the workgroup [CMWG] with the charter. We are driving activity for it and we have a huge list of key players participating. We definitely are marching quickly to solve this interoperability issues.
Will one vendor API be agreed upon or will you rework the submissions to create a universal API?
Our goal is not to rubber stamp one of these submissions. Our goal is to create a common API for the industry. We will take the best from the submissions and develop a common interface for cloud computing, giving customers more choices at the end of the day.
Will the common cloud standards rely upon any standards previously developed by the DMTF?
OVF is a key building block for cloud interoperability, and then the Common Information Model [CIM]. CIM really provides a vocabulary and a way to describe all this IT infrastructure. I don’t expect to integrate CIM directly into the cloud, we have already done that with OVF – all the resource definitions are based on CIM. And we might not use CIM specific grammar, but we use the CIM concepts so we don’t have to go back and redefine everything. We are leveraging all those important elements.
Often standards work is stalled for one reason or another. Will the momentum around developing cloud computing standards sustain itself? Are people anxious to get this work done?
There is really a lot of excitement and good energy around this week. People are clamoring for cloud computing standards. This is being considered the next platform and the energy level and the number of people taking part is higher than I have seen in other standards activities. After more than a year of work, the enthusiasm hasn’t fallen off. The participation is still very high for the working group.
Do you foresee any challenges to the standards work?
There are always challenges, but we have the right people at the table and the interfaces aren’t all that different. I don’t see any insurmountable differences and I am very optimistic that we are going to be able to deliver a common API within the next 12 to 18 months, possibly sooner. We are hoping to get that launched in the 2011 timeframe.
What’s different about this standards work? Why do you feel it’s on the fast track?
We have seen really great things fail because we haven’t had the key players at the table. With cloud, it seems all the right people are coming together and realizing that even if they compete on products they can collaborate on APIs and interfaces and deliver standards for what is considered to be the computing platform to offer flexibility, scalability, reliability and reasonable pricing. Vendors innovate on their platforms, they don’t innovate on the interface and that is where we are in the cloud space.
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