[Capi-bof] Charter for Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI) Working Group

[Alexis Richardson]

On REST can we say "eg RESTful"


2009/3/25 Edmonds, AndrewX <andrewx.edmonds at intel.com>:
> Inlined some questions…
>
> From: capi-bof-bounces at ogf.org [mailto:capi-bof-bounces at ogf.org] On Behalf
> Of samj at samj.net
> Sent: 25 March 2009 14:51
> To: capi-bof at ogf.org; samj at samj.net
> Subject: [Capi-bof] Charter for Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI)
> Working Group
>
> <snip>
>
> Group summary:
>
> Cloud computing can be categorized into three main areas (Cloud
> Infrastructure or "IaaS", Cloud Platforms or "PaaS" and Cloud Software or
> "SaaS") which all involve the on-demand delivery of computing resources.
> There are a growing number of infrastructure (IaaS) providers offering
> elastic capacity, whereby server "instances" are executed in their
> proprietary infrastructure and billed on a utility computing basis
> (typically virtual machines on a per instance per hour basis). There are
> also a number of commercial and open source products which seek to replicate
> this functionality in-house while exposing compatible interfaces so as
> "hybrid cloud" operating environments can be created.
>
> [AE: ] It might be useful to include the idea of not only provisioning
> server instances but data centre instances, which are simply a collection of
> server instances joined by an abstract network configuration. One server in
> my view does not equate to infrastructure J
>
> The Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI) will deliver a common interface
> for remote management of cloud computing infrastructure, allowing for the
> development of interoperable tools for common tasks including deployment,
> autonomic scaling and monitoring. The scope of the specification will be all
> high level functionality required for the life-cycle management of workloads
> (e.g. virtual machines) and containers (e.g. hypervisors) supporting service
> elasticity.
>
> [AE: ] Does this imply that the management of hypervisors will be actionable
> via the proposed interface?
>
> <snip>
>
> The resulting interface will be clear and concise, standards based (RESTful
> HTTP) and thus easily implemented and consumed. As it will be largely
> derived from examination of existing implementations, it can be viewed as a
> "consensus" of the innovation to date.
>
> [AE: ] Need we specify a REST approach here at this stage?
>
> Goals/deliverables:
> The primary deliverable is a technical specification of the Open Cloud
> Computing Interface (OCCI) in one or more open formats (e.g. DocBook) and
> under an open license (e.g. Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0
> Unported).
>
> Other deliverables that may be created in the process include use cases,
> surveys, presentations, user manuals, implementator guides, etc.
>
> Reference implementation(s) are specifically excluded, as are details
> relating to supporting infrastructure (such as storage and network hardware
> configuration).
>
> Timetable:
>
> OGF25
>
> March 2-6 2009
>
> Cloud Computing API BoF Session
>
> OGF26
>
> May 26-29 2009
>
> Overview & Rough API Presentations
>
> OGF27
>
> October 12-16 2009
>
> Draft API Presentation
>
> OGF28
>
> TBA
>
> Final API Presentation
>
> Exit strategy:
> The work of this group will be deemed complete when all the documents are
> completed.
>
> Questions:
>
> Is the scope of the proposed group sufficiently focused?
> Yes, the group will deliver an API addressing a confined set of requirements
> for Cloud Infrastructure (IaaS)
> Are the topics that the group plans to address clear and relevant for the
> Grid research, development, industrial, implementation, and/or application
> user community?
> Yes, many grid deployments today are related to cloud computing offerings.
> Delivery of an API is beneficial both to grid providers and their users.
> Grid and cloud are complementary, with the vast majority of cloud offerings
> today being powered by grid infrastructures.
> Will the formation of the group foster (consensus-based) work that would not
> be done otherwise?
> Yes, efforts to date have thus far failed to deliver an API suitable for
> widespread adoption. Within OGF this initiative is unique and forms a great
> opportunity to quickly create a standard for research and industry.
> Do the group's activities overlap inappropriately with those of another OGF
> group or to a group active in another organization such as IETF or W3C?
> No, existing efforts to date have been conducted by commercial entities
> (giving rise to governance concerns) or by ad-hoc standards groups. The
> specification will complement standard(s) from other groups (e.g. HTTP,
> OAuth, OVF, SSL/TLS).
> Are there sufficient interest and expertise in the group's topic, with at
> least several people willing to expend the effort that is likely to produce
> significant results over time?
> Yes, the group already has sufficient active members to deliver the
> specification including representatives from academia, industry and
> consumers. There is a significant body of work already completed from which
> a "consensus" can be derived. Research projects including SLA at SOI,
> OpenNebula, RESERVOIR and Nimbus have also stated an interest and some have
> active representation already.
> Does a base of interested consumers (e.g., application developers, Grid
> system implementers, industry partners, end-users) appear to exist for the
> planned work?
> Yes, there is already a thriving ecosystem of cloud computing providers and
> consumers who could benefit from this work.
> Does the OGF have a reasonable role to play in the determination of the
> technology?
> Yes, the OGF determines standards relating to grid computing. Most cloud
> computing deployments today are based on grid infrastructures and the two
> fields are complementary. Furthermore, most actors in the grid space are
> also active in cloud computing.
>
> Group status:
> BoF
>
> Public description (for print & web):
> "Group summary" above.
>
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