The DMTF’s CIMI cloud standard

I’m a great believer in Cloud Computing, whatever that is. And now there’s an accepted standard for what that thing is – the NIST definition. This may not be perfect, but it’s, well, “good enough” – and we can now talk about cloud issues in the context of semantics we understand. Which is good for all of us – apart from for those marketeers trying to redefine “cloud” to mean whatever they’re selling today. And upsetting them is good too.

However, we need more standards than the NIST definition if cloud is to deliver on the general perception of what cloud computing is about; we also need cloud semantics, APIs, management and so on. Now the DMTF has delivered the CIMI (Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface), which is about managing cloud infrastructure – another vital component in the emerging standards supporting interoperable cloud computing – see my DMTF Cloud Standard research note.