Software Engineering Institute

In cloud computing, interoperability typically refers to the ability to easily move workloads and data from one cloud provider to another or between private and public clouds. A common tactic for enabling interoperability is the use of open standards, and many cloud standardization projects are developing standards for the cloud. This report explores the role of standards in cloud-computing interoperability. It covers cloud-computing basics and standard-related efforts, discusses several cloud-interoperability use cases, and provides some recommendations for moving forward with cloud-computing adoption regardless of the maturity of standards for the cloud.