Cloud Standards: Agreements That Hold Together Clouds

Foreword

It’s often said that to know where you are going, you must know where you have been. I think of this phrase often. It wards off knee-jerk reactions, especially when faced with the temptation to jettison due diligence and dive into the latest technology wave. Today, cloud computing is a cresting wave crashing through its “hype cycle.” Experience brings perspective, healthy skepticism, and a vision of technological advances as a continuum.

The evolution to the cloud is just that—an evolution. From mainframes to distributed systems to personal computers to the Internet and now to the cloud: each computing wave took hold because of the demands of business were served by the advances in technology. The wave progression left a trail of standards, ...