Earlier this month, NIST went public with their perspective on cloud computing. This is important because NIST is a well-respected, public standards organization, and there is still a lot of confusion about what cloud really is (the *-aaS affect).
They released only a short, two page document and a longer, 72 slide PowerPoint (you can find their main page here). They are offering a broad definition based on essential characteristics, delivery models, and deployment models:
Essential Characteristics:
On-demand self-service
Ubiquitous network access
Location independent resource pooling
Rapid elasticity
Measured Service
Delivery Models:
Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS)
Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Deployment Models:
Private cloud
Community cloud
Public cloud
Hybrid cloud
There’s not really anything new here, but that’s fine; it’s more important as a validation of the emerging models and ideas from a public standards body. I do like the three pronged approach, acknowleding that cloud is a lot of things but at the same time keeping it simple and concise. Brevity is the soul of great standards.
It’s worth keeping an eye on this effort.
K. Scott Morrison's Blog 