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Sent to you by pakurilecz via Google Reader: A Cloud Manifesto
Controversy via WSJ.com: Digits by Ben Worthen on 3/27/09
“Cloud computing” continues its inexorable march through the tech
industry, despite a few lonely voices dismissing the term as a bunch of
hot air. The latest example: A coalition led by IBM that’s pushing
something called the “Open Cloud Manifesto.”

But all is not well in Cloudville. The manifesto has created a rift
among the companies pushing Internet-based computing.

This won’t be a Unabomber style rant, says Reuven Cohen, founder and
chief technologist for Enomaly, a Toronto-based startup, and one of the
manifesto’s authors. Instead it will be a short document listing six
principles, all of which boil down to a commitment to make it possible
to make clouds open.

What that means in English (or at least language that more closely
resembles English) is that these companies want to make it possible to
make applications that run on infrastructure operated by one company on
infrastructure operated by a different company. Today, many companies
that offer to run applications only do it with their own proprietary
formats.

The Open Cloud Manifesto, says Cohen, is basically a pledge to develop
standards that would make it possible to easily move applications from
cloud to cloud.

The main backer of the manifesto is IBM, which plans to unveil it
formally on Monday. The company has lined up a long list of backers.
But many prominent Internet companies aren’t on the list, including
Google, Amazon.com, Salesforce.com and Microsoft. (At one point IBM was
promoting Google as a participant, but the company isn’t signing on, a
Google spokesman says.)

One person who reviewed the manifesto and declined to participate said
that the companies weren’t given an opportunity to edit the document,
just to sign on. This person said that the manifesto read like it was
“written from the viewpoint of companies who have a lot to lose,”
adding that “IBM didn’t get the right companies on board first.”

Cohen says that the manifesto isn’t an attempt to create standards,
just a commitment to work together. As for his small company, “I’m just
happy to have seat at the table,” he says.

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