Introduction

ITU-T Focus Group on Cloud Computing (FG Cloud) was established by ITU-T TSAG agreement at its meeting in Geneva, 8-11 February 2010 followed by ITU-T study groups and membership consultation.

The Terms of Reference of the Focus Group are available at: http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/cloud/Pages/tor.aspx

The Focus Group will contribute to the telecommunication aspects of cloud computing, i.e., the transport via telecommunications networks, security aspects of telecommunications, service requirements, etc., in order to support services/applications of “cloud computing” making use of telecommunication networks; specifically:

• identify potential impacts on standards development and priorities for standards needed to promote and facilitate telecommunication/ICT support for cloud computing
• investigate the need for future study items for fixed and mobile networks in the scope of ITU-T
• analyze which components would benefit most from interoperability and standardization
• familiarize ITU-T and standardization communities with emerging attributes and challenges of telecommunication/ICT support for cloud computing
• analyze the rate of change for cloud computing attributes, functions and features for the purpose of assessing the appropriate timing of standardization of telecommunication/ICT in support of cloud computing

The Focus Group will collaborate with worldwide cloud computing communities (e.g., research institutes, forums, academia) including other SDOs and consortia.

For more information on the ITU-T Cloud FG, please visit:  http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/cloud/Pages/default.aspx

Results of April 2011 Meeting of ITU-T Cloud FG

The fifth ITU-T Focus Group on Cloud Computing (FG Cloud) meeting took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 5 to 8 April, 2011. 39 participants brought 65 contributions, input liaisons and presentations to the meeting.

The principal outputs of this meeting were revised drafts of six documents (which are only available to ITU-T member organizations):

-Introduction to the cloud ecosystem: definitions, taxonomies, use cases, high level requirements and capabilities.
-Functional requirements and reference architecture.
-Infrastructure and network enabled cloud.
-Cloud security, threats and requirements.  A “Cloud Security Deliverable” document will be generated at the next FG meeting
-Benefits of cloud computing from telecom/ICT perspectives.
-Overview of Standard Development Organizations (SDOs) involved in cloud computing. 

Note: The FG will consider Open Virtualization Format (OVF) v1.0 as a virtualization technology.  It will soon be an international standard through an ANSI fast track submission in ISO/IEC JTC 1.

The following items will also be progressed at future FG meetings:

-Accessibility, virtual terminals and Eco-friendly Cloud Computing – accessibility general principle and relationship with Cloud.
-Resources Management. The Cloud FG will provide a document which lists the specifications available on the resources management and provide a gap analysis.

Of all these activities, the most relevant to the actual cloud network is the deliverable output covering Infrastructure and network enabled cloud.  This is the closest that the Cloud FG will come to defining a UNI and/or NNI for various configurations of cloud computing

The activity of that work area will be focused on:

– the ability to link existing networks services, Internet connectivity, L2/L3 VPN efficiently to public or private cloud services.

– the ability to link a flexible L2 & L3 network management and cloud technology forming an integrated cloud infrastructure enabling cloud services.  Both intra and inter-cloud scenarios are being considered.

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For more information on the ITU-T Cloud FG, please visit:  http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/cloud/Pages/default.aspx

Please post a comment or contact the author if you are interested in this ITU-T activity or the IEEE Cloud standards projects (see previous post).