Oracle releases Cloud API

Oracle has released a cloud API and submitted part of it to a standards organisation.

On Wednesday the company released a general Oracle Cloud API, and submitted a subset of the API — the Oracle Cloud Elemental Resource Model API — to the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), a standards body. Oracle hopes the API will be considered for integration into the DMTF's Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud API standard.

The Cloud API is based around the management of cloud infrastructure, according to Oracle. It allows people to provision machines, modify configurations and view different IT resources as single logical entities, according to the API's technical documentation (PDF).

"As the use of cloud environments accelerates, the industry needs to consolidate on a set of accepted standards. Contributions like the Oracle Cloud Elemental Model subset of the API will help speed development and adoption of cloud-related standards," DMTF chairman Mike Baskey said in a statement.

The Oracle submission puts its API into competition with others submitted to the DMTF, such as Red Hat's Deltacloud API. It also puts it into competition with OpenStack, which officially released its own cloud API last month.