Cloud computing is the latest phenomenon in the IT world. However, the emergence of standards is a sign of market maturity, and it can be a big mistake to commit to products from a market that is not mature. That’s why everyone is asking, “When will we see some cloud standards?”
Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer.
The protocol, data format and program-interface standards for using cloud services are mostly in place, which is why the market has been able to grow so fast. But standards for configuration and management of cloud services are not here yet. What’s more, the crucial contextual standards for practices, methods and conceptual frameworks are still evolving.
Cloud computing will not reach its full potential until the management and contextual standards are fully developed and stable. In the meantime, there will be pitfalls, so buyers of cloud services should beware. Cloud standards start with TCP/IP. Internet standards were probably the biggest market enablers of all time, even before the cloud markets of infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) were added to the voice and data communication services they already supported.
On top of TCP/IP, the cloud uses established standard Web and Web Service data formats and protocols. The programming interface standards on which Cloud PaaS offerings are based are equally well-established. They include the single-vendor .NET standards and multivendor standards such as UNIX, Linux, Java and SQL.
This means that companies can use cloud services—and make those services available to their customers—secure in the knowledge that they and their customers can use off-the-shelf products without being locked into a particular cloud vendor by proprietary interfaces. Then this essential precondition for market growth is fulfilled.