Cloud Interoperability Forum to be revived

Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum is working to revive the organisation, which fizzled in 2010, InfoWorld reports.

Even though the group has been defunct for a couple of years, it still counts 1 300 people on its mailing list and 3 000 in its LinkedIn group, said Reuven Cohen, who first kicked off the forum in 2008. Cohen's company, Enomaly, which offered software for building public clouds and the SpotCloud marketplace for on-demand computing, was purchased by Virtustream late last year.

PCWorld reports that since he proposed reviving the organisation on his blog and on Google+ on Monday morning, he's gotten "dozens" of e-mails from people supporting the idea, Cohen said.

The group's original mission was to create an open community "dedicated to driving the rapid adoption of global cloud computing services". It said its work could include "advocating best practices/reference architectures for the purposes of standardised cloud computing". Its Web site still lists big-name supporters including Intel, Cisco Systems, IBM and RSA.

According to IT Business Canada, the Forum foundered when Cohen ran out of time to continue maintaining it, he said. But the group also struggled with its identity, and with hindsight, Cohen believes members can define a more targeted mission.

A March 2009 blog post highlights some of the struggles the group faced. The post followed an uproar that erupted after the CCIF signed on to the controversial Open Cloud Manifesto. CCIF later removed its name from the document and in the post noted that it did not have the governance policies in place to make such a stand.