8.1.5. Development of standards
Cloud computing providers should continue spending resources in
the development of standards that promote interoperability within
diverse cloud computing services. Our interactions with different
industry executives lead us to believe that without a framework that
allows transparent movement of data between organizations who
might be with different providers, the success of cloud computing
might be very limited. A related issue is manageability — the largescale
deployment of cloud computing in an organization will require
not only the development of standards, but also standardized
interfaces and automation tools for managing them in a mix-andmatch
environment. Finally, we feel that in the current “formational”
stages, cloud computing providers should share best-of-breed
operational practices openly, since that would help develop better
products and promote lower prices, leading to greater acceptability
and growth of the market for the industry as a whole.
8.2. A suggested research agenda
Our discussion suggests several potential streams of research for IS
researchers. We purposefully do not concentrate on the core
technological issues in cloud computing, since that is outside the
purview of IS research. The broad IS research agenda in cloud
computing can be divided into six categories: (1) Cloud computing
economics; (3) Cloud computing and IT strategy/policy issues
(including security); (4) Technology adoption and implementation
issues; (5) Cloud computing and green IT; and (6) Regulatory issues.
We should emphasize that these topics are not islands in themselves,
and many research issues will often have points of contact with
several of them.