SNIA, Cloud Standards Customer Council Partner for Standards

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) has formed an alliance with the Cloud Standards Customer Council (CSCC) to work together on cloud standards that will meet the needs of customers.

The two organizations will collaborate on technical developments, with a special eye towards customer requirements. SNIA and CSCC will work with technology and solution vendors that implement end-user qualified standards into their products while providing a benchmark related to performance, cost and efficiency goals for customers.

“As we continue to develop the CDMI cloud standard, cloud best practices, and cloud education, closer collaboration and feedback with the CSCC will further align industry efforts for key requirements, including interoperability, data protection, and security,” said Wayne M. Adams, SNIA chair, in a prepared statement. “CSCC focused efforts on user perspective case studies, service level agreements, and vertical industry needs can accelerate the acceptance and use of accredited cloud standards.”

With so many different cloud providers on the market, some of them established and others brand new, there could be benefits for vendors, their channel partners and end-customers in ensuring a set of standards are available and adhered to by certain providers.

SNIA and CSCC plan to collaborate in three key areas:

Both companies have worked on cloud standards independently and with others, but according to Richard Mark Soley, chairman and CEO of Object Management Group (OMG), which manages CSCC, more end-user input is needed to focus cloud standards on customers’ real requirements.

“CSCC’s membership is delighted that major standards organizations like SNIA are signing up to listen carefully to requirements and priorities from the burgeoning cloud user base,” he said in a statement.