The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), today announced that it has formed a group dedicated to addressing the need for open management standards for cloud computing. The “Open Cloud Standards Incubator” will work to develop a set of informational specifications for cloud resource management.

No specific standards currently exist for enabling interoperability between private clouds within enterprises and hosted or public cloud providers. DMTF’s Open Cloud Standards Incubator will focus on addressing these issues by developing cloud resource management protocols, packaging formats and security mechanisms to facilitate interoperability.

The Open Cloud Standards Incubator was formed as part of the DMTF Standards Incubation process, which enables like-minded DMTF members to work together and produce informational specifications that can later be fast-tracked through the standards development process. The incubation process is designed to foster and expedite open, collaborative, exploratory technical work that complements the DMTF mission to lead the development, adoption and promotion of interoperable management initiatives and standards. The current incubator leadership board consists of: Continue reading…

Sun Microsystems, today announced it has acquired Q-layer, a cloud computing company that automates the deployment and management of both public and private clouds. The Q-layer organization, based in Belgium, will become part of Sun’s Cloud Computing business unit which develops and integrates cloud computing technologies, architectures and services.

Q-layer provides software for data centers that enables true cloud computing. The Q-layer offering features the NephOS Platform, a complete data center abstraction and modeling platform with extension capabilities and full support for cloud computing services. The NephOS Platform enables CloudApps like the Virtual Private  Data Center  (VPDC), that allows users at any skill level to define, provision and manage their own data center, without managing hardware.

“Sun’s open, network-centric approach coupled with optimized systems, software and services provides the critical building blocks for private and public cloud offerings”, said David Douglas, senior vice president of Cloud Computing and chief sustainability officer, Sun Microsystems. “Q-layer’s technology and expertise will enhance Sun’s offerings, simplifying cloud management and speeding application deployment.”

Sun has big problems. Let’s see if the cloud can save them.

You might not know, but Sun is one of the pioneers of the “cloud”, they were offering back in 2005 “grid computing as a service” for “$1 an hour per processor used and $1 each month per gigabyte of storage the company requires“. Of course, back then Amazon was just selling stuff.

So, yesterday was supposed to be the day when Sun Microsystems will have a major announcement about the company’s plans for the next generation cloud computing. Well, it didn’t happen. The only thing we’ve got was from Dave Douglas, director of Sun’s cloud computing business unit: ”Sun is a part of many cloud efforts already in various forms, and so we’ve got a lot of pieces that were there.”

Network.com however, Sun’s front-end for its Grid Compute Utility has a “cloud teaser” on the front page: 

Network.com is in transition as we add some exciting new options. We’re not ready to show off what we’re working on just yet, but we’d like to hear from you, and we’d like to keep in touch

Continue reading…