Cloud computing is on the rise, but executives want to be assured that if they make the switch to the cloud they won't regret it later. Depending on how cloud service providers set up their technology, they can make it harder or easier for applications living in one cloud service to interact with those living in others, or for their customers to shift to a different service provider.
It was to head off such problems that IBM and other tech companies banded together to produce a document called "The Open Cloud Manifesto." The manifesto has been endorsed so far by more than 30 tech companies and multiple customers. The six-page document is a statement of principles calling for the entire computer industry to keep cloud services as open as possible--making it easy for them to interoperate and for customers to switch service providers with the minimum of bother. "If the industry doesn't come together, the result would be proprietary islands" of data and applications, warns Kristof Kloeckner, IBM's chief technology officer for cloud computing.
Source: News Factor