The Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) has announced that Microsoft Corp., has joined the organization as a contributor member. With Windows Azure, its industry leading cloud platform, and leadership in enterprise software delivery, Microsoft brings a valuable perspective to the organization and is expected to contribute immediately to the Alliance's mission. The ODCA's current membership is comprised of hundreds of corporations spanning the globe working collaboratively towards shaping the future of the enterprise ready cloud based on industry standard solutions. The organization aims to be a voice for enterprise IT in articulating the requirements for the transforming enterprise IT landscape with focus on topics including open, interoperable delivery of compute infrastructure as a service, cloud security, and best practices for adoption of big data analytics.

"The ODCA brings together leaders from across industries to work together towards a vision of open, industry standard cloud solution delivery," said Mario Mueller, BMW's vice president of IT Infrastructure and chair of the Alliance. "In order to truly accelerate availability of cloud services, enterprise IT needs to work closely with cloud service and solution providers.  Microsoft's participation is a valuable addition to the organization's mission, and we heartily welcome their membership."

"In line with Windows Azure's commitment to openness and interoperability, we are pleased to join ODCA and work with industry leadership on standards for the cloud," said Bill Hilf, general manager, Windows Azure. "We are dedicated to serving the industry and customers by providing an open, reliable and global approach to the cloud, and we look forward to contributing to the ODCA's mission."

The announcement follows a series of Master Usage Model publications from the organization focused on requirements for compute infrastructure as a service, a leading focus of enterprise adoption of cloud solutions in 2013. These usage models and other Alliance developments will be discussed at the organization's upcoming Forecast 2013 conference scheduled for June 17-18 in San Francisco aligned with Forecast's premier media sponsor Giga-Om's Structure conference.