Cloud computing needs standards to mature, experts say

Cloud computing is still in its infancy and standards need to be developed around the emerging technology, several experts said today at the Strategies and Technologies for Cloud Computing Interoperability meeting sponsored by the Object Management Group.

Standards will lead to cloud-computing technology that is interoperable, which in turn will provide government agencies with more choices when adopting cloud-based solutions, said Winston Bumpus, president of the Distributed Management Task Force.

System that work with common standards will also create competition among vendors, which should reduce costs to government organizations, he said. Without standards, agencies could get locked into proprietary systems that do not interoperate with any other pieces of technology, Bumpus said.

Standards will also reduce training costs because employees will not be forced to learn how to use several systems that do not interoperate, Bumpus said.

Even though there is a lack of standards, agencies should not be afraid of developing and deploying cloud-computing systems, said Krishna Sankar, leader of the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium’s Cloud Computing Team.

Developing cloud computing systems is now more important than developing standards, he said, adding that once systems are created, developers will have a better idea of where standards are needed.

“You want to innovate but only at certain points do you want standards,” Sankar said. “You will only know where those points are once you start developing.”