PORTLAND, Ore., Nov. 1 – The Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) and TM Forum today announced a major milestone in collaboration with the publication of a suite of documents outlining requirements for Compute Infrastructure as a Service (CIaaS) that aim to simplify solution adoption by large enterprises. Leveraging the collective insights of both organizations, the publications include a joint statement on CIaaS, ODCA’s specific technology and service requirements for CIaaS services, and documents from TM Forum’s Enterprise Cloud Leadership Council that discuss requirements for enterprise-grade CIaaS environments.

“The collaboration between TM Forum and the ODCA provides a comprehensive IT view on enterprise-grade CIaaS requirements and incorporates insight from some of cloud computing’s earliest adopters, many of which are TM Forum members,” said Dr. Robert B. Cohen, Director of the Enterprise Cloud Leadership Council, TM Forum. “Both service providers and cloud infrastructure vendors are looking to the cloud to help them meet demand for digital-based services. The requirements for cloud services included in this joint work reflect both of our organizations’ vision for a robust, open and vibrant cloud marketplace.”

The publications delivered through the collaboration include:

• Joint Statement – Provides an executive summary of cloud services requirements from the collaboration’s technical publications.
• ODCA’s CIaaS Master Usage Model – Describes the requirements for a complete CIaaS solution. In order to meet these requirements for the broad range of cloud consumers, a common framework is required around which CIaaS can be defined, provisioned, monitored and managed. This document outlines a common set of principles, metrics and architectural frameworks to deliver consistent capabilities, service levels and attributes across multiple providers, while still allowing individual providers to innovate and differentiate their services, and deliver more stringent security and management requirements than are available in today’s public clouds.
• TM Forum’s Requirements for Enterprise-Grade CIaaS – Describes the requirements for enterprise-grade, external ClaaS from the perspective of the enterprise consumer. These documents, developed by TM Forum’s Enterprise Cloud Leadership Council, propose common terminology to help reduce semantic arguments over meanings of words, and explore requirements in commercial, technical and operational categories. They also include business case studies and models for ClaaS.

Both the ODCA and TM Forum expect the documents to be used by service providers and cloud vendors worldwide to target CIaaS solutions to enterprise customers. With over two thirds of ODCA members surveyed signalling their intent to integrate specific technology and service requirements into procurement plans in the next 18 months, both organizations anticipate swift service provider and vendor responses to deliver services to enterprise customers.

“The Open Data Center Alliance remains committed to acceleration of the full scope of cloud solution availability,” said Marvin Wheeler, executive director of the Open Data Center Alliance. “With our members showing a strong interest in IaaS solutions as part of their strategic cloud utilization, this week’s CIaaS publications are a major step towards simplification of solution adoption. The collaboration with TM Forum ensures that the CIaaS requirements reflect the best thinking from the earliest adopters of cloud computing.”

The documents are available free to the public from both the Open Data Center Alliance’s and TM Forum’s ECLC websites.

TM Forum’s ECLC is a practical, results-based body comprised of many of the world’s largest multi-national companies and government bodies, dedicated to sharing actionable best practices, standing up real-world reference implementations and advancing the adoption of enterprise cloud operating models. Members include: Bank of America, Boeing, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Credit Suisse, Cycle Computing, Dassault, Northrop-Grumman, Photronics, SWIFT, UBS and many more.

About The Open Data Center Alliance

The Open Data Center Alliance is an independent IT consortium comprised of global IT leaders who have come together to provide a unified customer vision for long-term data centre requirements. The Alliance is led by a twelve member steering committee which includes IT leaders BMW, Capgemini, China Unicom, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, Inc., National Australia Bank, T-Systems, Terremark, Disney Technology Solutions and Services, and UBS. Intel serves as technical advisor to the Alliance.

In support of its mission, the Alliance has delivered the first customer requirements for cloud computing documented in eight Open Data Center Usage Models which identify member prioritised requirements to resolve the most pressing challenges facing cloud adoption.

About TM Forum

TM Forum is a global, non-profit industry association focused on enabling service provider agility and innovation. As an established thought-leader in service creation, management and delivery, the Forum serves as a unifying force across industries, enabling more than 900 member companies to solve critical business issues through access to a wealth of knowledge, intellectual capital and standards.

The Forum provides a unique, fair and safe environment for the entire value-chain to collaborate and overcome the barriers to a vibrant, open digital economy, helping member companies of all sizes gain a competitive edge by enabling efficiency and agility in their IT and operations.

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Source: Open Data Center Alliance and TM Forum