One of the most interesting use-cases for the pending SNIA CDMI Cloud Storage standard involves Cloud service brokerage. Cloud Storage services in particular. The Peering capabilities enabled via CDMI will further facilitate the emergence of a new business category in Cloud Computing – The Cloud Broker.
Recently advocated by leading analyst firms, this role would mitigate key risks around the federation of various Cloud services. Even the US Federal CIO has recently spoken out regarding this key characteristic of upcoming Government Cloud services and related NIST Cloud Computing standards.
Data integration, integrity, portability and security are among the many issues Cloud Brokers are tackling on behalf of Enterprise Cloud customers. See this diagram for some of the useful Cloud Storage relationships enabled by CDMI for configurations which would address these issues.
Members of the SNIA CDMI technical working group and Cloud Storage Initiative will be at SNW Orlando this week. (1. presenting vendor-neutral tutorials, 2. staffing the Cloud Storage pavilion in the Exhibit Area, 3. assisting the service providers in the Cloud Hands-on-Labs and 4. leading a Birds of a Feather (BoF) session on Cloud Storage) See 2 posts below for full details.
Please drop by and share your thoughts with us on the role of Cloud Brokers – and any other Cloud Storage topic of interest to you!