Open Data Center Alliance Reveals New Charter to Accelerate Cloud Adoption at Forecast 2014

CenturyLink and Intel Join ODCA Board at Conference Focused on Sharing Cloud Computing Best Practices

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Sep 23, 2014, 11:30 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In conjunction with its flagship event, Forecast 2014, the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) today announced a new organizational charter, formation of a Cloud Expert Network and new workgroup structure. The new charter provides focus on driving widespread adoption of enterprise cloud computing through best practice sharing and collaboration with the industry on availability of solution choice based on ODCA requirements. With IT leaders pressured to drive new levels of organizational agility through cloud service delivery and private cloud expected to grow to a $130 billion industry by 2016, the demand for collaboration across enterprises accelerating cloud adoption is acute. ODCA President and UBS Infrastructure CTO Correy Voo made the announcement in his opening keynote address where he also welcomed CenturyLink and Intel as members of the organization's board of directors. Forecast 2014 runs through September 24 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

Composed of more than 300 member companies across the globe, the ODCA represents enterprise IT leaders across industries. Since 2010, the ODCA has worked to document more than 30 requirements for cloud computing adoption in the enterprise. The organization's new charter will shift its focus to enabling broad scale adoption of the cloud, delivery of solutions and services aligned with ODCA requirements, and deeper collaboration with industry standards and regulatory bodies.

"It's time to move the ODCA and the industry toward broad scale enterprise adoption of cloud services and solutions," explained Voo. "Today we introduced ODCA 2.0, driving adoption of interoperable solutions for secure cloud federation, cloud automation, common management and transparent cloud service delivery based on our unified cloud requirements."

Voo also announced the creation of the Cloud Expert Network (CEN), a cadre of ODCA Contributor and Solution Provider members who will form the core of contributors for work supporting the Alliance's new charter and will benefit through collaboration with peer experts in a variety of data center domains. CEN members will provide expertise to projects undertaken by the ODCA's technical workgroups and provide their expertise to IT organizations seeking to accelerate their cloud strategies. Within ODCA workgroups, CEN members will drive member proof-of-concept testing of cloud solutions, engage with standards bodies to align ODCA requirements with industry standards and regulations, and identify requirements gaps for evolution of ODCA usage models.

With emergence of ODCA 2.0 and the organization's shifting focus toward adoption and solutions alignment, Voo announced that Intel Corporation will transition its existing role within the ODCA from technical advisor to a member of the Board of Directors at the beginning of 2015. "The ODCA has delivered incredible insight into enterprise requirements for adoption of cloud computing through over 1,000 pages of requirements publications," said Shannon Poulin, Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Enterprise IT Solutions Group. "Intel has benefitted from our role as technical advisor to the ODCA, and remains deeply committed to this unique organization as we transition into a board role to support the new organizational charter."

ODCA leaders share deployment insights, detail enterprise requirements at Forecast
ODCA leaders BMW, SAP, T-Systems and UBS also shared organizational insights on cloud deployments at Forecast. As ODCA's charter evolves to drive acceleration of broad scale adoption of cloud computing across the enterprise, key learnings from leading adopters of cloud will help other organizations accelerate their own adoption plans.

ODCA technical leaders also provided insight on a suite of new publications at Forecast including a UBS best practice publication and new requirements and best practice documents. All presentations and publications from Forecast are available at the ODCA content library.

UBS and ODCA: Collaborating to Bring Clarity to the Cloud
This paper reveals how UBS has worked with the ODCA and its associated community of end-users and service providers to improve knowledge and development of cloud services and solutions.

ODCA Position Paper: Cloud Adoption in 2014
As of mid-2014, the ODCA has published 28 usage models and numerous requirements to help solution and service providers understand market needs. The bulk focus of this work is in the areas of security, interoperability and usability – areas in which innovation is key to moving cloud products and services forward in 2014.

Improving Agility in Cloud Risk Management: Best Practice Paper
The intention of this paper is to help to improve the agility, coverage, sustainability and efficiency of cloud risk management. It presents enterprise risk management strategy and operational practices to help embed agile, effective, sustainable and safe cloud implementations that meet business objectives and control requirements.

ODCA White Paper: Cloud Benefits Realization
This paper provides methods to calculate and track cloud benefits — including the possible variables that are necessary for quantification — in the context of the appropriate business case and use cases for cloud service adoption.

ODCA White Paper: e-Discovery and Forensics
This paper examines e-discovery and forensics from an enterprise perspective and establishes a framework by which companies subject to these requirements can operate with cloud providers. The companion usage model will define the requirements of cloud subscribers who are subject to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or require forensic access to cloud services.

ODCA Usage Model: e-Discovery and Forensics
This usage model will define the requirements of cloud subscribers who are subject to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or require forensic access to cloud services.

ODCA Usage Model: Data Exchange for Software as a Service
Fully realizing the benefits of SaaS and avoiding potential costly and brand-damaging mistakes requires that data management best practices be applied. This guide provides practical advice to help accomplish these goals.

ODCA Usage Model: Provider Assurance
This usage model provides standard definitions of security for cloud services, details mechanisms for service providers to demonstrate compliance, and gives organizations the ability to validate adherence to security standards within cloud services.

ODCA Usage Model: Cloud Service Brokering
This paper describes a usage model for establishing and engaging a relationship and function between a cloud service broker, cloud service provider/s, a cloud services subscriber, and a cloud services consumer for the provision of cloud services.

ODCA presents inaugural Distinguished Engineer Award
Voo also presented Pankaj Fichadia and Ryan Skipp with the first-ever ODCA Distinguished Engineer Award today in recognition of their technical contributions, leadership and commitment to the ODCA's vision. Fichadia is part of the Managed Cloud Services Team at National Australia Bank and has held various leadership positions within the ODCA, including Chair of the Standards and Regulatory Work Group and Co-Chair of the Business Transformation Work Group. Skipp works in Global Portfolio and Solution Development for T-Systems and has contributed to numerous usage models and technical papers through his involvement with ODCA working groups. He is Chair of the Business Transformation Workgroup and a past Chair of the Manageability and Services Workgroup.

"Pankaj and Ryan's commitment to the ODCA, in both time and expertise, has been substantial and critical to the growth of the organization," remarked Catherine Spence, Principal Engineer for Intel and Chair of the Technical Coordination Committee for the ODCA. "They are both tireless advocates for the ODCA, for cloud computing, and for their colleagues. This is a well-deserved honor."

The third-annual Forecast 2014 runs through September 24 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. On-site registration is available. Visit the Forecast website for more details on speakers and sessions.

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 Webinar 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 Webinar 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.