What clouds are made of

There's a lot of fancy-schmancy philosophical debate about the ontology of the cloud, that is, the stuff that comprises cloud computing. As befits an ontological discussion, some of it is a bit obtuse. To wit:

Capturing cloud computing systems as composable services allows researchers in cloud computing to define a more robust interaction model between the different cloud entities, on both the functional and semantic levels. Further, it facilitates recognizing the inter-dependency between the different cloud systems, which in turn, accent opportunities for collaboration between different services and enhance QoS based analysis techniques that can result in better guarantees for the service levels of the different cloud systems.

Translation: Hey guys, if we know what's in the cloud maybe we can build systems that work well together.

As Aristophanes, the 4th century BC Greek playwright who poked fun at philosophers in his aptly name play, The Clouds, might have said, "Well, duh."

However, if you drop by the Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum (CCIF), the discussions are far more practical than philosophical, even when folks talk about ontology. In an e-mail to me, one of its prime movers, Reuven Cohen called the CCIF "an industry advocacy group" for cloud interoperability, which implies standards. He says it's necessary for the CCIF to "incubate" ideas "until [cloud computing] finds a proper standards group as a home, like, IETF [Internet Engineering Task Force], or what have you."

Cohen is also the editor and founder of Cloud Interoperability Magazine, which is a nexus for cloud computing standardization efforts. In addition, he runs CloudCamp, what he calls an "unconference" as a virtual place to share cloud computing "experiences, challenges and solutions." In his spare time, Cohen is the chief technology officer at Enomaly Inc. in Toronto.

He's emphatic about the practical importance of cloud computing interoperability as it becomes a major force in IT operations. He says, "I think the real question about cloud interoperability has more to do with portability and vendor lock-in versus freedom from the confines of your traditional infrastructure....Whether it's internal or external, proprietary or open, for me the answer is choice. Interoperability gives the freedom to choose the best services, providers and applications regardless of technology or market adoption."

Even Aristophanes wouldn't make fun of that.