With a keynote and session on Standards Roadmapping & Future Trends, we are taking forward our remit to ensure that global solutions for Cloud interoperability are a top priority through our leadership role in the EU project SIENA and close synergy with the U.S. National Institute for Standards and Technology. Standards are a key part of the Cloud equation to avoid vendor lock-in and ultimately drive innovation in the marketplace. Consensus building and effective dialogue with providers, developers and users are important stepping stones to ensure Europe gains real benefits from its investments in the distributed computing arena.

The session continues SIENA's in-depth analysis of requirements across research, public services and enterprise to understand how current gaps can be filled, how expertise can be leveraged most effectively, and how barriers to mainstream adoption can be overcome. Helping to shape the specific contributions of standards groups will be one of the most important outcomes of the session amidst growing but un-coordinated efforts as recently highlighted by Computer World.

More on the session goals.

More on the Symposium.

On the Race to Cloud Standards Gets Crowded, Computer World.