oasis-charter-discuss — archive

[Robin Cover]

Congratulations to the developers of the Cloud PaaS specification "Cloud Application Management for Platforms Management" and for further initiative to support standardization of this technical work in an OASIS Technical Committee.  Proposal text: https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/oasis-charter-discuss/201208/msg00000.html With respect to the seven enumerated "References" cited at the end of the proposal text and proposal Section (2)(a) "Similar or Applicable Work", the TC proposers may wish to take into consideration also the PaaS usage model document recently published by the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA): ODCA Usage Model: Platform as a Service (PaaS) Interoperability Rev 1.0  14 pages  Published August 2012, (c) 2012 Open Data Center Alliance   http://www.opendatacenteralliance.org/docs/ODCA_PAAS_Interop_UM_Rev1.0_BD.pdf From: Open Data Center Usage Models   http://www.opendatacenteralliance.org/ourwork/usagemodels I think this document (announced on August 15, 2012) probably arrived too late to be considered by the proposers. ==================================== From the Executive Summary ==================================== "Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a maturing cloud computing segment which enables developers and operations staff to quickly and easily configure and deploy a cloud-ready  application of a particular platform or for a particular stack, in a linearly scalable, managed container, including program, database and development tools, and libraries. Additionally, PaaS provides a managed application hosting environment that removes the need for the cloud subscriber to manage the complexities and details of the underlying infrastructure for an application. Ideally, a properly  architected cloud application can be ported seamlessly from one PaaS to another, with the benefits of avoiding vendor lock-in, enabling the use of multiple providers to host the same application globally, and enabling reliable and automatic elasticity for the application. For the purposes of the ODCA, the definition of PaaS is  intentionally constrained to deploying a single application developed for a specific programming language within a hosted application container. Cloud providers may offer support for multiple languages and multi-tenant containers in their PaaS offering. However, each and every hosted language is considered an individual PaaS offering. Also, for the purposes of this document, development, build, testing, and continuous integration capabilities are assumed to be orchestrated outside of the PaaS in order to avoid vendor lock-in. The ODCA specifically excludes programmable SaaS offerings from being defined as PaaS offerings. A PaaS, as defined by the ODCA, explicitly has no SaaS dependency. While two perspectives of interoperability, interconnectability and portability, are relevant to PaaS, additional requirements for interconnectability at the application level are firmly in the hands of the application developer. It is recommended that applications developed for PaaS hosting be properly architected per the ODCA Developing Cloud Capable Applications*, and be designed to meet the interconnectability requirements of the ODCA SaaS Interoperability Usage Model**, where applicable. This paper outlines five usage scenarios, along with success and failure scenarios for each. Finally, cloud service provider requirements and an industry call to action are  presented. This document serves a variety of audiences. Solution providers and technology vendors will benefit from its content to better understand customer needs, and to tailor service and product offerings. Standards organizations will find the information helpful in defining end-user relevant and open standards. *   http://www.opendatacenteralliance.org/docs/Best_Practices_whitepaper.pdf ** http://www.opendatacenteralliance.org/docs/ODCA_SAAS_Interop_UM_Rev1.0_BD.pdf ================================================ Publication Announcement ================================================ From the ODCA announcement August 15, 2012 http://www.opendatacenteralliance.org/newsroom/mediaresources/#newusagemodels "The Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) today published two new interoperability-focused usage models focused at PaaS and SaaS accompanied by an foundational document on interoperability  requirements for the cloud. These documents form a clear picture of customer demands for interoperable solutions regardless of type of service delivered through the cloud and join previously published usage models addressing interoperability of IaaS solutions. The documents detail expectations for market delivery to the organization's mission of open, industry standard cloud solution adoption, and discussions have  already begun with providers to help accelerate delivery of solutions based on these new requirements... Because cloud applications and services must co-exist and interact across service providers and enterprise deployments, it is increasingly important to define and implement requirements for interoperability. The new usage models, focusing on PaaS (Platform as a service) and SaaS (Software as a service) interoperability, ensure that applications and services operate seamlessly across clouds and providers. The PaaS interoperability usage model outlines requirements for rapid application deployment, application scalability, application migration and business continuity..." --------------------- Cheers. - Robin -- Robin Cover OASIS, Director of Information Services Editor, Cover Pages and XML Daily Newslink Email: robin@oasis-open.org Staff bio: http://www.oasis-open.org/people/staff/robin-cover Cover Pages: http://xml.coverpages.org/ Newsletter: http://xml.coverpages.org/newsletterArchive.html Tel: +1 972-296-1783