The Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA), a global member-led organization where hundreds of enterprise IT organizations are working together to drive broad scale requirements for the enterprise ready cloud, today announced the release of a new POC (proof-of-concept) paper developed to determine where the virtual machine (VM) industry currently is in meeting interoperability requirements outlined in the ODCA VM interoperability usage model. The paper overviews procedures and results from recent ODCA VM interoperability testing and identifies priorities and gaps that hypervisor and VM solution providers need to address in order to move VM interoperability between public and private enterprise clouds forward. ODCA will hold a June 17 panel at Forecast 2013 where testing results outlined in the POC will be discussed and steps for addressing the current gaps in VM interoperability will be developed. All Forecast 2013 attendees are invited to attend this panel event.

"The ODCA VM interoperability usage model has been adopted by many of our member companies as a core foundation for implementing their enterprise ready clouds and has been extremely instrumental in shaping new solutions from VM vendors," said Ryan Skipp, Portfolio and Solution Development at DTAG/T-Systems and Chair of the ODCA Manageability and Services Workgroup. "The POC paper released today is important because it clearly illustrates what industry needs to do next to advance interoperability based on ODCA VM interoperability requirements. Forecast 2013 is the perfect venue to bring hypervisor and VM solution providers together with industry to collaboratively address these pressing issues."

The Implementing the Open Data Center Alliance Virtual Machine Interoperability Usage Model

POC released today was developed within the ODCA Manageability and Services Workgroup and includes specifications for interoperability developed by DMTF, an ODCA partner organization. The POC outlines testing criteria and procedures for documenting how hypervisor and VM solutions from both ODCA members and non-members interoperated in real-world enterprise cloud scenarios. The paper proves that interoperability based on ODCA VM interoperability usage model requirements is possible and includes guidance on steps that need to be taken by hypervisor platform and VM providers to help ensure interoperability in the enterprise ready cloud is achieved. ODCA will update testing procedures and announce future testing results on a regular basis. The paper is available for download on the ODCA website.

Virtual Machine Interoperability Panel Announced at Forecast 2013 The ODCA VM interoperability panel will take place on June 17, the first day of the two-day Forecast 2013 conference. The panel will be moderated by industry analyst Paul Miller, and will include participants from ODCA membership and the hypervisor and VM communities. The complete Forecast 2013 agenda is available on the Forecast 2013 website.

"True interoperability of hypervisor and virtual machine solutions between clouds is critical to advancing enterprise ready cloud implementations," said Martin Wheeler, executive director, Open Data Center Alliance. "We encourage global IT managers and cloud solution and service providers to join us at the Forecast 2013 VM interoperability panel on June 17 to take part in the collaborative discussions that will help drive the next phase of VM interoperability in the enterprise cloud."