1. Introduction
1.1 Background
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been designated by Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) Vivek Kundra with technical leadership for us government (USG) agency efforts related to the adoption and development of cloud computing standards. The goal is to accelerate the federal government's adoption of secure and effective cloud computing to reduce costs and improve services. The NIST strategy is to build a USG Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap which focuses on the highest priority USG cloud computing security, interoperability and portability requirements, and to lead efforts to develop standards and guidelines in close consultation and collaboration with standards bodies, the private sector, and other stakeholders.
The NIST cloud computing program was formally launched in November 2010 to support the federal government effort to incorporate cloud computing as a replacement for, or enhancement to, traditional information system and application models where appropriate. The NIST cloud computing program operates in coordination with other USG-wide cloud computing efforts (CIO Council/ISIMC, etc.) and is integrated with the Federal 25-point IT Management Reform Plan and Federal Cloud Computing Strategy . NIST has created the following working groups in order to provide a technically-oriented strategy and standards-based guidance for the federal cloud computing implementation effort:
Cloud Computing Target Business Use Cases Working Group
Cloud Computing Reference Architecture and Taxonomy Working Group
Cloud Computing Standards Roadmap Working Group
Cloud Computing SAJACC Working Group
Cloud Computing Security Working Group
1.2 Objectives
The NIST cloud computing definition [1] is widely accepted as a valuable contribution toward providing a clear understanding of cloud computing technologies and cloud services. It provides a simple and unambiguous taxonomy of three service models available to cloud consumers: cloud software as a service (SaaS), cloud platform as a service (PaaS), and cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS). It also summarizes four deployment models describing how the computing infrastructure that delivers these services can be shared: private cloud, community cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud. Finally, the NIST definition also provides a unifying view of five essential characteristics that all cloud services exhibit: an¬cle mancl self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service.
These services and their delivery are at the core of cloud computing. In the cloud computing model, the primary focus is a more economic method of providing higher quality and faster services at a lower cost to the users. In the traditional IT service delivery model, there IS a large emphasis on procuring, maintaining and operating the necessary hardware and related infrastructure. The cloud computing model enables CIOs, IT project managers and procurement officials to direct their attention to innovative service creation for the customers.
In order to have successful service delivery, the USG needs to ensure the reliability in the delivery of products and processes. By ensuring durable and proper standards in place for cloud computing in security, data portability and service interoperability, the USG will have the additional confidence needed to move their applications into the cloud. The necessary standards will also promote an even playing field among cloud sendee providers and give the cloud service consumers a number of different options in the marketplace and the confidence that their data and applications will operate on any cloud.
Standards for cloud computing are the overall goal of the NIST cloud computing program; the logical step to take after the formation of the NIST cloud computing definition is to create an intermediate reference point from where one can frame the rest of the discussion about cloud computing and begin to identify sections in the reference architecture in which standards are either required, useful or optional. The NIST cloud computing