Cloud Standards: Agreements That Hold Together Clouds

Introduction

This book is about the technology that supports the cloud and the standards that have made the cloud possible. It combines several subjects: computing, standards, and business. Information technology (IT) clouds are both a business arrangement and a collection of computing technology. As technology, a cloud is the power of large datacenters made accessible through a far-reaching network. As a business arrangement, a cloud separates responsibility for physical computing equipment and operations from the consumers of computing services, much as electrical utilities separate the responsibility for generating electricity from the consumers who use it.

Just as small and large electricity users benefit from efficient and reliable electrical ...