Considerations on the Interoperability of and between Cloud Computing Standards

Cloud computing has gaining importance in the recent past due to the conjunction of well-known key features, such as virtualization and pay-by-use, which together form an innovative concept. Even if cloud computing does not have a widely accepted definition, it has been used for many companies to deploy its infrastructures and promote their business. However, the lack of standards seems to be a drawback related to interoperability and optimization issues. Convenient actions like changing cloud providers, and/or exchange data/information between clouds may be an arduous work for its customers. Therefore, this paper presents major considerations regarding the lack of cloud standards and pointing why this is considered to be a problem. Furthermore, scenarios are discussed, which are desired to make use of cloud interoperability and which are currently initiatives addressing cloud standards issues. This leads to a set of important observations towards a solution solving the interoperability and standardization problem.