The Open Data Center AllianceSM (ODCA) recognizes the need for interoperable cloud environments and management solutions that incorporate standard mechanisms to create consistencies across all VMs. Interoperability is viewed from two perspectives of interconnectability and portability, as follows:
• Interconnectability—the parallel process in which two coexisting environments communicate and interact.
• Portability—the serial process of moving a system from one cloud environment to another.
This Usage Model recommends actions and processes to spur development of interoperable solutions aimed at lowering management complexity and costs, especially in heterogeneous, multi-vendor environments. This update to the VM Interoperability model addresses a number of important additional dimensions including extending the portability concept, extending the life cycle model with States and Conditions, and increased alignment with external work such as that of the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) specification.
This document serves a variety of audiences. Business decision makers looking for specific solutions and enterprise IT groups involved in planning, operations, and procurement will find this document useful. Solution providers and technology vendors will benefit from its content to better understand customer needs and tailor service and product offerings. Standards organizations will find the information helpful in
defining standards that are open and relevant to end users. Regulators and auditors can use this document to review and monitor solutions and services, especially in focused areas supporting the growth of cloud computing.