The CloudEthernet Forum (CEF) and the Metro Ethernet Forum have created the CEF ‘Open Cloud Project.’ The Open Cloud Project will focus on creating an open test and iterative standards development program for service providers, industry vendors and OTT cloud service providers.
The Open Cloud Project includes a dedicated proof of concept test laboratory based in Silicon Valley, to provide ongoing testing and support for the iterative development of the CEF’s CloudE 1.0 open cloud environment. It will also provide the basis of future compliance and benchmark testing.
The CEF is integrating testing into the standards development process from the start. Initial work will be focused on three areas: application performance management, cloud security and traffic load balancing. The project’s open test program aims to lay the groundwork for a fully inter-working cloud environment, and the advancement of best practices to manage OTT and cloud services.
“This is vitally important work if we are to avoid fragmentation of the cloud,” explains James Walker, CEF President and Vice President of Managed Network Services at Tata Communications.
“Cloud services rely on the end to end interoperability of so many players – enterprises, network and datacenter equipment vendors, datacenter operators, orchestration layers, management and reporting platforms, security devices, network service providers – the list goes on.
The MEF has shown a successful model of defining service types and attributes which everyone can agree to and align with, which through this test bed we can adapt and bring to the cloud industry. Unless we can define industry best practices and global standards to establish an open cloud environment, cloud services run the risk of becoming more and more fragmented and difficult to integrate.”
The Open Cloud Project is an industry leading program of the CEF, a close affiliate of the MEF with a combined 240+ members, made up of leading equipment and cloud software vendors and the world’s largest telecommunications providers and cable operators.