I Have a Dream

If we do it right, cloud interoperability could be as easy as a URL rewrite – a la API refactoring. Not kidding. Question is, can we do it right?

Watching the emergence of a new technology is both fascinating and frustrating. In the case of cloud computing it’s fascinating to see the “process” of standardization and positioning taking place but it’s frustrating to see the same hurdles whittling away at the potential for true interoperability because of the silos that continue to exist not only in the organization but amongst the broader industry that provides infrastructure and services to those organizations.

On the one hand we’ve got storage and networking vendors trying to develop APIs and models. On the other hand we’ve got developers and application-oriented vendors trying to develop APIs and models. And neither of them has the expertise of the other that’s required to take on the birds’ eye view of cloud computing and interoperability that’s necessary – absolutely necessary – to achieve what could be the most elegant interoperability standards to date. We’ve got silos, people, and we need to get out of them and meet in the barn sooner rather than later if we want true interoperability to succeed. It is possible, but it won’t happen while we’re locked away in our silos (ivory towers) ignoring the “other half” of the equation.