Draft: Roadmap for Cloud Computing Technology

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released for public comment a draft "roadmap" that is designed to foster federal agencies' adoption of cloud computing, support the private sector, improve the information available to decision makers and facilitate the continued development of the cloud computing model.11/11/2011

NIST has released for public
comment a draft "roadmap"
on Cloud Computing;© panther-
media.net /Tom De Spiegelaere

The draft publication defines high-priority requirements for standards, official guidance and technology developments that need to be met in order for agencies to accelerate their migration of existing IT systems to the cloud computing model.

Volume I, High-Priority Requirements to Further USG Agency Cloud Computing Adoption, provides a general understanding and overview of the roadmap initiative, including:

- prioritized interoperability, portability and security requirements that must be met to further government cloud adoption;
- standards, guidelines and technology that must be in place to satisfy these requirements; and,
- a list of Priority Action Plans (PAPs) recommended for voluntary self-tasking by the cloud stakeholder community to support standards, guidelines and technology development.

Volume II, Useful Information for Cloud Adopters, is a technical reference that is useful for those working on strategic and tactical cloud computing initiatives—whether they work in government agencies or not. Volume II integrates and summarizes the work completed to date, explains the assessment findings based on this work and how these findings support the roadmap introduced in Volume I.

The third volume, Technical Considerations for USG Cloud Computing Deployment Decisions, is under development as part of an interagency and public working group collaborative effort. It is intended as a guide for decision makers who are planning and implementing cloud computing solutions.

COMPAMED.de; Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)