Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) has announced the release The Open Data Center Alliance Proof of Concept: Service Orchestration with TOSCA white paper. The proof of concept (PoC) demonstrates how software applications can be tested for portability and moved across cloud environments using the OASIS Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA) framework. The paper serves as a reference enterprise IT teams can leverage in their deployment of software applications across multiple cloud environments and as an important resource for advancing the deployment of open federated cloud services.
TOSCA is an OASIS standard that provides definitions for packaging and reusing software components to enhance the portability and management of cloud applications and services across their lifecycle. The PoC marks the first time TOSCA has been tested in real world deployment scenarios using requirements outlined in the ODCA Service Orchestration Master Usage Model as the framework for establishing testing criteria. The ODCA Service Orchestration usage model outlines business, legal and technology requirements for software application orchestration across enterprise cloud environments and includes requirements for commercial orchestration, technical service orchestration and consumer interface management. The PoC shows how a software application was packaged and reused for deployment in cloud enterprise environments and outlines definitions, methods and recommendations enterprise IT teams can use to define and deploy their own virtualized cloud application services.
"Moving software applications between enterprise cloud computing environments is a requirement for advancing the development of open federated cloud services. The ODCA Service Orchestration with TOSCA PoC proves that application portability in the enterprise cloud is possible and is an important document for demonstrating how enterprises can leverage open industry standards to deploy and manage software applications in the cloud," said Ryan Skipp, Portfolio and Solution Development at DTAG/T-Systems and Chair of the ODCA Manageability and Services Workgroup. "We congratulate OASIS for their leadership in advancing open standards for software application portability in the enterprise cloud and look forward to collaborating on additional TOSCA initiatives in the future."
The PoC provides an overview of the relevant industry frameworks in the enterprise cloud portability space and details the factors that ultimately led to selecting TOSCA as the framework for ODCA PoC testing. These factors include TOSCA's support for enterprise and open-source concepts, features for mapping software component definitions, and support from both the academic and enterprise communities. The PoC is one of the industry's first white papers to examine testing beyond the virtual machine layer and into the application stack to investigate testing for Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). The paper includes sections on the TOSCA-Based Application Packaging Project, an overview of the implementation of the ODCA service orchestration use case with TOSCA, details on testing procedures, and an evaluation of tests conducted.
"The ODCA members responsible for the TOSCA PoC represent some of the leading companies shaping the future of Cloud computing. We recognize their support of TOSCA as evidence of the standard's importance in enabling true portability of applications across the enterprise," said Laurent Liscia, CEO of OASIS. "ODCA's PoC and OASIS' recent TOSCA interoperability demonstration deliver the kind of assurances and assistance that benefit TOSCA implementers worldwide."
The Service Orchestration with TOSCA white paper has been developed within ODCA's Manageability and Services Workgroup, with input from FZI Forschungszentrum Informatik, T-Systems International and Telekom Innovation Laboratories. The paper is part of ODCA's extensive library of output that includes over 25 usage models and requirements focused on enterprise cloud computing, big data and data analytics. ODCA usage models have been instrumental in the development of new products from cloud vendors and solution providers and when specified using PEAT, ODCA's online Proposal Engine Assistant Tool, have proven to dramatically streamline enterprise cloud RFP (Request for Proposal) processes. ODCA members regularly develop PoCs to test usage models in real world deployment scenarios with recent PoCs including the Virtual Machine Interoperability PoC and the Carbon and Energy Efficiency POC. The Service Orchestration with TOSCA PoC released is available for free download on the ODCA website.
