Today NIST began sending users their credentials for their Cloud Computing twiki, of which Kevin Jackson was one of the first to be granted access. The intent of the NIST working group is to promote cloud computing adoption and overcome the current perceived barriers of security, interoperability and portability.
Currently NIST will run mailing lists on the following subjects related to Cloud Computing:
- Business Use Cases
- Reference Architecture
- Taxonomy
- SAJAAC
- Security
- Standards
NIST Cloud Computing stated goals:
The long term goal is to provide thought leadership and guidance around the cloud computing paradigm to catalyze its use within industry and government. NIST aims to shorten the adoption cycle, which will enable near-term cost savings and increased ability to quickly create and deploy enterprise applications. NIST aims to foster cloud computing systems and practices that support interoperability, portability, and security requirements that are appropriate and achievable for important usage scenarios.
The NIST definition of Cloud Computing encapsulates 5 essential characteristics
- On-Demand Self-Service
- Broad Network Access
- Resource Pooling
- Rapid Elasticity
- Measured Service
With three service models:
- IaaS - Infrastructure-as-a-Service
- PaaS - Platform-as-a-Service
- SaaS - Software-as-a-Service
Interested developers and architects are encouraged to participate.
