ODCA Delivers First Enterprise IT Position on Privacy and Security, Shares Enterprise Best Practices for Cloud

Suite of technical publications released in conjunction with ODCA London Leadership Event at Cloud World Forum

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Jun 18, 2014, 04:00 ET

PORTLAND, Ore., June 18, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In conjunction with its London Leadership Event co-located with Cloud World Forum, the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA), the global organization where members work together to advance the deployment of enterprise cloud solutions and services that are interoperable, secure and free of vendor lock-in, today published a suite of new enterprise papers on best practices and requirements for cloud computing. Covering a range of topics, including the first available enterprise IT perspective on security and privacy these publications reveal how enterprises are working with the ODCA to develop strategy for cloud implementation and adopting ODCA usage models as the foundation for deploying enterprise cloud services. All of the papers are available for free download in the ODCA content library.

The newly released papers are:

ODCA Security and Privacy Position Paper
Organizations deploying cloud computing services need tools to understand and prepare for security and privacy threats. Recent reports highlight specific threats, and many people seeking cloud services express particular concern about some of the most well-known intrusions. Threats to corporate and government data are increasing and becoming more sophisticated, but high-profile, newsworthy, individual threats should not be the focus of an organization's security posture. Instead organizations should apply a consistent process and develop security risk management that incorporates their cloud service providers and cloud technologies. This paper identifies the security frameworks, best practices, and ODCA usage models enterprises should deploy to integrate cloud services into their risk management program.

ODCA White Paper: Procurement of Cloud Services
Cloud-based services have made the evolution of IT services and adoption by business users fast and easy. However, the agility of and easy access to cloud-based services can also introduce challenges for existing governance structures as they attempt to maintain business goal alignment and compliance. This white paper describes how corporate procurement and contracting processes can be updated to deal with procurement of cloud-based services in a sustainable, efficient and compliant manner. Following some of the best practices recommended in this paper may help organizations align risk and reward decisions, and enable them to balance value with control, agility with governance, and freedom with accountability.

ODCA Best Practices: Architecting Cloud-Aware Applications
To effectively leverage the potential of cloud computing, enterprises must make fundamental shifts in the way they address development and operations. With cloud computing, applications are built differently, run differently and consumed differently. These differences require new modes of thinking, consideration of the inherent trade-offs when planning solutions, and an understanding of the design patterns that achieve the best results. Designed to complement the ODCA white paper, Developing Cloud-Capable Applications, this publication provides prescriptive, technical guidance for cloud-aware application design. It focuses on the evolution of application architecture, cloud as an application platform, cloud-aware application design patterns, and operational strategies.

ODCA Master Usage Model: Business Strategy Enabled by Cloud
Cloud computing has been posed as an ideal solution to help meet enterprise computing objectives because it offers IT services an on-demand model with the ability to scale in real time and cost benefits derived from critical mass for processing and operations. However, several factors must be dealt with before these benefits can be sustainably recognized. This usage model provides a guideline and key considerations for creating a business strategy enabled by cloud-based services.

Along with these papers, Correy Voo, ODCA president and Infrastructure CTO for UBS, will kick off the ODCA Leadership Event with an opening keynote in which he will share how ODCA usage models have influenced his organization's cloud strategy. He will reveal how UBS leveraged its participation in the ODCA to progress internally focused cloud strategies, and share insights into the architectural principles, frameworks and technical specifications being applied to the evolving requirements of the business. Voo's keynote sets the stage for a full agenda focused on insights and best practices from technical expert-members of the ODCA.

About The Open Data Center Alliance
The Open Data Center Alliance^SM is an independent IT consortium comprised of global IT leaders who have come together to provide a unified customer vision for long-term data center requirements. The organization is led by a 14-member steering group, which includes representatives from BMW, Capgemini, China Unicom, Infosys, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, Inc., National Australia Bank (NAB), NTT Data, SAP, T-Systems, UBS, Verizon Terremark and The Walt Disney Company. Intel serves as technical advisor to the alliance. ODCA hosts a Flash Seminar series every other Tuesday at 8:00am US PT. These public events are one of the best ways to get to know ODCA usage models from the ODCA members who worked on creating the documents. View the calendar and register to attend the webinars on the ODCA Flash Seminar page. More information about ODCA publications and membership can be found at the organization's website: www.opendatacenteralliance.org, and on Facebook, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Twitter, and YouTube.