The Open Group Announces Formation of Cloud Work Group

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 17, 2009 " The Open Group, a vendor- and technology-neutral consortium focused on open standards and global interoperability within and between enterprises, today announced the formation of The Open Group Cloud Work Group. Based on the work that The Open Group and its members have done over the last year related to end-user requirements for cloud computing and the vendor lock-in issue, the Group is being established to ensure the effective and secure use of cloud computing within enterprise architectures, based on open standards. The Open Group Cloud Work Group prioritizes collaboration on standard models and frameworks, aimed at enterprises looking to benefit from cloud products and services.

The Open Group Cloud Work Group was created to develop a common understanding between buyers and suppliers of how enterprises, regardless of size or scale of operation, can include cloud computing technology in a safe and secure way in their architectures to realize its significant cost, scalability and agility benefits. The newly-formed group includes some of the industry's leading cloud providers and end-user organizations and emphasizes customer input, drawing on The Open Group's global membership.

"The growth in cloud computing has resulted in a diversity of technical capabilities, and enterprises at all scales are trying to understand how to take advantage of these capabilities in their business operations. This provides a unique opportunity for our industry to come together and create standard models and frameworks that provide guidance for implementing cloud computing and that will benefit business and IT equally," said Dave Lounsbury, vice president, Collaboration Services, The Open Group. "The Cloud Work Group intends to collaborate with and complement the great work that is already being done in the industry, in order to help enterprises that wish to build cloud technologies into their architectures in a way that is secure, beneficial and avoids unnecessary vendor lock-in."

The first deliverable of the Cloud Work Group will be to publish a Business Scenario for Enterprise Cloud Computing, based on end-user requirements discussed at The Open Group's July Enterprise Architecture Conference held in Toronto. Business scenarios, an important technique that is fully explored as part of The Open Group's TOGAF framework, can be used at various stages of enterprise architectures to derive architecture requirements directly from high-level requirements for each business organization. The Enterprise Cloud Business Scenario will help companies identify and understand business needs relative to cloud computing and thereby derive the requirements that the architecture development must address. For more information on this report, please visit: http://www.opengroup.org/cloudcomputing/uploads/40/20362/R091.pdf. The direction of the group is determined by Open Group members, but participation is welcomed from all organizations that wish to understand or contribute to the development of best practices for enterprise use of cloud computing. To get involved or for more information, please visit: https://www.opengroup.org/cloudcomputing/.

About The Open Group The Open Group is a vendor-neutral and technology-neutral consortium, which drives the creation of Boundaryless Information Flow that will enable access to integrated information within and between enterprises based on open standards and global interoperability. The Open Group works with customers, suppliers, consortia and other standard bodies. Its role is to capture, understand and address current and emerging requirements, establish policies and share best practices; to facilitate interoperability, develop consensus, and evolve and integrate specifications and open source technologies; to offer a comprehensive set of services to enhance the operational efficiency of consortia; and to operate the industry's premier certification service. Further information on The Open Group can be found at http://www.opengroup.org.