Key Pillars of the Open Cloud: Data Portability, Standards, Ease of Adoption, Choice

Data portability, standards, ease of adoption, and developer choice are the four pillars of the Open Cloud identified by Microsoft, and outlined by Jean Paoli, General Manager, Interoperability Strategy at Microsoft, during a recent presentation at O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON). Paoli’s presentation, titled “Open Cloud, Open Data” emphasizes the need to place interoperability at the heart of any Cloud computing platform, of course, including the Redmond company’s very own Windows Azure. Watch the video embedded at the bottom of this article in order to get an insight into Microsoft’s perspective on open Cloud and open data.

On-premise deployments are all about control as a fundamental characteristic. Some of the reluctance expressed by the people I’ve been talking to when it comes down to embracing the Cloud, is generated by the feeling that they’re actually losing control, or that they have to settle for less then they’re used to. But Paoli makes some excellent points with the key concepts of the open Cloud.

The inherent benefits of connectivity in concert with interoperability, along with making sure that customers are indeed in control of their data, facilitating adoption, and offering choice as a fundamental principle, will ultimately accelerate the move away from on-premise deployments. Embracing the Cloud is of course more a matter of when, and not of if, but the fact of the matter is that that there will always be companies which will run their own servers in their own datacenters. Microsoft’s existing technologies can already support scenarios in which customers will choose a hybrid model, combining on-premise and in the Cloud deployments.

The software giant has set up the Interoperability Elements of a Cloud Platform website, an online destination designed to ease the discussion with customers, partners etc.

Here are the foundational elements of an open cloud platform, according to Paoli:

“• Data Portability: How can I keep control over my data? Customers own their own data, whether stored on-premises or in the cloud. Therefore, cloud platforms should facilitate the movement of customers’ data in and out of the cloud.

• Standards: What technology standards are important for cloud platforms? Cloud platforms should support commonly used industry standards so as to facilitate interoperability with other software and services that support the same standards. New standards may be developed where existing standards are insufficient for emerging cloud platform scenarios.

• Ease of Migration and Deployment: Will your cloud platforms help me migrate my existing technology investments to the cloud and how do I use private clouds? Cloud platforms should provide a secure migration path that preserves existing investments and should enable the co-existence between on-premise software and cloud services. This will enable customers to run “customer clouds” and partners (including hosters) to run “partner clouds” as well as take advantage of public cloud platform services.

• Developer Choice: How can I leverage my developers’ and IT professionals’ skills in the cloud? Cloud platforms should offer developers a choice of software development tools, languages and runtimes.”

Windows Azure is a great example of Microsoft’s focus on interoperability