Today TM Forum announced that it is partnering with the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), a leading standards organization in the cloud industry, to coordinate their work around the development and adoption of standards for the management and operational needs of the cloud computing environment. The two organizations are focusing on developing standards for a more holistic approach to cloud management in order to reduce deployment costs, speed time-to-market, and improve service quality through best practices and standards. TM Forum announced the partnership at Management World Americas 2011, Nov. 8-10, at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando, Fla.

As part of this newly forged relationship, the TM Forum’s Cloud and New Services Initiative, which provides a forum for the entire cloud eco-system to drive operational and management solutions for cloud services, and DMTF will tackle a number of industry issues including: external private cloud; cloud-dynamic business modeling; cloud service brokers; billing and SLA management for the cloud. The groups will also explore how TM Forum’s Frameworx suite of standards supports cloud management with regard to business processes, data models, applications and interfaces.

“This partnership between DMTF and TM Forum will be a major step in providing resources for service providers to understand enterprise requirements for cloud management,” said Mike Baskey, DMTF Chair. “Our combined work will provide a strong basis for interoperability and coexistence in the cloud marketplace and will lower development, integration and operational costs.”

“By partnering with DMTF we are able to draw on each other’s strengths, and not reinvent the wheel when understanding the operational needs of cloud services customers,” said Matt Edwards, Director of the Cloud and New Services Initiative, TM Forum. “With the help of DMTF, we will continue to define operational and management needs and the standards that will drive cloud service adoption and remove the barriers to entry for enterprises today.”

The TM Forum Cloud & New Services Initiative brings all members of the value chain (Enterprise Customers, Cloud Service Providers and Technology Suppliers) together to remove barriers to adoption of cloud and other advanced digital services. The Initiative has already produced enabling technology and Frameworx enhancements to facilitate a standards-based marketplace focused on enterprise customers and cloud service provider needs.

DMTF enables more effective management of millions of IT systems worldwide by bringing the IT industry together to collaborate on the development, validation and promotion of systems management standards. The group spans the industry with 160 member companies and organizations, and more than 4,000 active participants crossing 43 countries.