Source: BBC
Some of the world’s biggest companies are using their market clout to demand that computer equipment makers change the way they make their machines.
The 70 firms, which includes BMW, Shell and Marriott Hotels, said systems that do not work together are holding back the spread of cloud computing.
The companies have formed the Open Data Alliance Centre to push for unified standards for technology.
The businesses involved account for more than $50bn (£32bn) in IT spending.
“The old way just won’t work anymore,” said Andrew Feig, an executive director at Swiss bank UBS.
“We want to pay for what we need, when we need it.”
The principle goal of the body is to help businesses cope with an explosion in the number of people that will want to access services and applications online using a plethora of different devices from phones to TVs to tablet computers. Researchers estimate that another one billion users will come online in the next five years.
Goals and principles
The Alliance’s Cloud 2015 vision is aimed at creating a federated cloud where common standards will be laid down for those in the hardware and software arena.
Another goal is to ensure all devices are interoperable when accessing services via the cloud.
“The advancement of technology is growing at such a rapid pace where we have gone from a PC to a laptop to a netbook to a tablet in the space of not very many years,” said Marvin Wheeler, Alliance chairman and chief strategist for cloud services provider Terremark.
“The demands on the IT organisations are coming at such an alarming rate that there are many, many different solutions being developed today that maybe don’t work with each other,” he said.
“We need one voice, one road map, so that companies are able to say to manufacturers here is a clear vision of what they should be developing their product to do.”
