CLOUD Activity Report 2013
Chairman: Mike Fisher, BT Group PLC
Responsible for producing test specifications and standards to integrate the use of telecommunications infrastructures in networked computing, including both Grid computing and Cloud computing
The European Commission (EC) Cloud Computing Strategy aims to create 2,5 million new European jobs and boost EU GDP by €160 billion by 2020. The EC paper, “Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe” (COM(2012) 529), cites a study which estimates that “the public cloud would generate 250 billion euros in GDP in 2020 with cloud-friendly policies in place against 88 billion euros in the “no intervention” scenario”. Already there are numerous Cloud services on offer, presenting radical new business opportunities. Standardisation is seen as a strong enabler for both investors and customers and can help increase security, ensure interoperability, data portability and reversibility.
The main focus of ETSI’s Cloud activities in 2013 was the Cloud Standards Co-ordination (CSC) initiative. In September 2012 the EC issued a Communication on Cloud computing which drew attention to the proliferation of standards and the resulting confusion as key factors holding back the widespread use of Cloud computing. The EC then asked ETSI to co-ordinate with stakeholders and to identify the standards required to support its policy objectives. ETSI launched the CSC, under the management of TC CLOUD, in December 2012, in co-operation with various partner organisations. Under this umbrella, interested parties, including non-members of ETSI, met for a series of brainstorming sessions throughout 2013. The initiative attracted cloud industry players, public authorities, user associations and more than 20 standards-setting organisations.
The final report of the CSC was made public in December 2013 in Brussels, Belgium, at an event organised by ETSI and the EC and attended by over 100 experts from the Cloud community.
The report provides a definition of roles in Cloud computing and a collection and classification of over 100 Cloud computing use cases. The document also serves as a reference for existing Cloud activities by including a list of around 20 organisations involved in Cloud computing standardisation and about 150 associated documents, standards and specifications, reports and White Papers.
The report also describes activities that need to be undertaken by Cloud service customers or Cloud service providers over the whole Cloud service life-cycle, and it maps selected Cloud computing documents (in particular standards and specifications) on to these activities.
Finally, the report offers a series of recommendations on the way forward and identifies important gaps in Cloud standardisation.
Other work in TC CLOUD in 2013 included the publication in April of a series of test descriptions for Cloud interoperability which can be used as a guide for the organisation of Plugtests™ interoperability events.