Hybrid Cloud For Dummies

Organizations Building Momentum Around Standards

A number of organizations and informal groups are addressing standards issues in the cloud environment. Some of these organizations have been around for years; others are relatively new. Note: Some of these standards bodies aren’t necessarily looking to create new standards. Instead they are looking to leverage existing best practices and standards such as those used in implementing the web and service oriented architectures (SOA).

Several standards organizations have gotten together to create a cloud standards coordination wiki — a website that uses collaborative software to allow many people to work together to post and edit content. All groups can post their work at one spot: www.cloud-standards.org .

Cloud Security Alliance

We talk a lot about the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) (www.cloudsecurity.org ) in Chapter 15. The CSA formed in late 2008 when cloud security became important in users’ minds. Its founding members include Dell, PGP, QualSys, Ascaler, and the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). The CSA’s goal is to promote a series of best practices to provide security assurance in cloud computing and to provide education. It’s important to note that the CSA itself isn’t an actual standards body. However, its objectives include promoting understanding between users and providers of cloud computing regarding ...