STANDARDS

Standards are a big challenge in cloud computing as of now. Customers, meaning large organizations, who explore their options therefore want to ensure that once they make the jump they will not be "locked" in any technology standard. 
 
One group trying to ease this process, is the Cloud Standards Customer Council (CSCC). The Cloud Standards Customer Council is an end user advocacy group devoted to complement existing cloud standards efforts and provide best practices and use cases to assist organizations who are planning their transition to cloud computing.
Right now, it seems that such a mission is seen as important by heavyweights, too. In April 2011 the organization announced that IBM and 45 of the world's leading organizations have joined the council.
 
"End users confront the challenges of implementing cloud on a daily basis. The Cloud Standards Customer Council will bring together these cloud veterans into a community where they can discover and disseminate best practices for moving to and managing the cloud and help to drive standards across industry, both to end-users and vendors to bring down costs and increase choice," said Richard Mark Soley, chairman & CEO, OMG.
 
Goals of the CSCC: 

• Drive customer requirements into the development process to gain acceptance by the Global 2000
• Deliver customer-focused content in the form of best practices, patterns, case studies, use cases, and standards roadmaps.
• Influence the standards development process for new cloud standards.
• Facilitate the exchange of real-world stories, practices, lessons and insights (Link to website)

Interesting Links provided on cloud-council.org
 

• Various case studies
• Doug Tidwell discussing a Simple Cloud API 
• Video explaining the benefits of cloud computing