I'd like to thank everyone who has recently joined the cloud computing interoperability forum's discussion group. I won't respond directly to all the messages, but I will state that I too believe that open standards are the only way that cloud will be truly successful which IS exactly the purpose of this group.

In regards to the last few CCIF posts, the one thing I keep hearing over and over are the bits and pieces of what we're trying to do that have already been created to some degree. I think one of the things that the CCIF as well as our events have provided to the broader cloud computing community is an open dialog between the "established powers" and the new generation of provocateurs (myself included). This group is a perfect example consisting of a variety of companies and individuals from almost all aspects of the cloud / IT industry, big and small. I can't help but think that traditionally the development of standards and related protocols (open or closed) has been an exclusive club limited to only the largest companies who were able to pay to play. What the emergence of the cloud and related social technologies has given us the ability to do is publicly iterate on the development of standards. What used to take years now can happen in days. ( Jayshree Ullal comments about the advancements made in 'cloud networking' are perfect -- "more has been achieved in the last 100 days of Cloud Networking than is possible in 100 weeks")

Jesse Silver, Dave Neilsen, John Willis, Sam Charrington and few others suggested we create a working group to help drive the conversations forward. I agree, I feel we need to start working on something that may not be perfect, but instead is something that actually starts to take shape in a functional form. So my question to the group is rather then continually talk about the opportunities (past, present and future). Why don't we instead start to do something about it, something tangible, something we can achieve in the next 100 days.

If your interested in getting involved, we've created a google code group at http://code.google.com/p/unifiedcloud/ for this very reason. I invite anyone who is interested in getting involved to send me your email address and I'll make sure you're added as a contributor on our Google code site.

• The State of the Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum