Cloud computing user alliance aims for security and simplification
Shell, BMW, UBS and others plan computing roadmap
Companies including BMW, Deutsche Bank and Shell have joined a group which aims to simplify cloud computing and make it more interoperable and secure.
At an event at particle research facility Cern near Geneva on Wednesday, the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) was unveiled with JP Morgan Chase and Lockheed Martin also among its 70 members.
Other members of the group include China Life, Marriott International, National Australia Bank and UBS. The group is backed by chip giant Intel, which is a technical adviser to the group.
Mario Mueller, BMW Group VP for IT infrastructure, who is on the alliance steering committee, said: "Vendors will not be members but we will encourage dialogue with the industry."
The Open Data Center Alliance is aimed at making cloud computing more interoperable and secure and counts BMW, Deutsche Bank and Shell among its members
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The alliance, whose members together spend $50bn on IT annually, has created five working groups covering services, management, infrastructure, security and government and ecosystems. It expects to produce an initial roadmap in the first quarter of 2011.
VP in the Intel Architecture Group Boyd Davis said the chip giant had been asked by a number of major companies to help create the alliance. "We're not a voting member and we have no control over the output of the group," he said.
"[In fact the ODCA's] roadmap could challenge us considerably," Davis added.
At the Cern event Intel also announced an expansion of its Cloud Builders programme, which consists of system and software suppliers. The chipmaker said the programme now has 20 reference architectures for cloud computing.
Cloud Builders consists of a number of major suppliers including Canonical, Cisco, Citrix, Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft and VMware. Intel said the ODCA helps define user requirements while the goal of Cloud Builders is to provide systems that meet those needs.
"We'll look at the ODCA requirements and continue to drive Cloud Builders to meet those requirements," Davis said.