NIST Releases Cloud Computing Roadmap

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published the final version of the US Government Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap, Volumes I and II. Reflecting the input of more than 200 comments on the initial draft, this report leverages the available strengths and resources and highlights the strategic and tactical objectives necessary to support accelerated cloud computing adoption by federal agencies, according to a press release.

“Decision makers contemplating cloud computing adoption face a number of challenges relating to policy, technology, guidance, security, and standards,” the report states. “Strategically, there is a need to augment standards and to establish additional security, interoperability, and portability standards to support the long-term advancement of the cloud computing technology and its implementation.”

“Cloud computing is still in an early deployment stage, and standards are crucial to increased adoption,” according to the report. “The urgency is driven by rapid deployment of cloud computing in response to financial incentives.”

Volume I of the report, “High Priority Requirements to Further USG Agency Cloud Computing Adoption,” outlines the purpose and scope of the roadmap, focusing on five priorities: security, interoperability, portability, performance, and accessibility. The roadmap also identifies 10 requirements seen by NIST as necessary to maintain innovative federal cloud adoption, including a need for international standards, security solutions, and identification of clear and consistent cloud services categories.

The roadmap also provides accompanying “priority action plans” for each requirement, including target completion dates.

Volume II of the report, “Useful Information for Cloud Adopters,” is designed as a technical reference work for strategic and tactical cloud computing initiatives. According to the release, it introduces a conceptual model, the NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture and Taxonomy, provides some sample cases, and also identifies relevant existing cloud interoperability, portability, and security standards and highlights areas of concern that need to be addressed via new standards, guidance, and technology. In addition, Volume II addresses cloud security issues.

As Business Solutions Magazine reported, NIST recently announced three public working groups to address cloud services, federated community cloud, and interoperability and portability. The working groups will bring together industry, government, and academic experts to address requirements laid out in the Cloud Computing Standards and Technology Roadmap.

“Recognizing the significance and breadth of the emerging cloud computing trend, NIST designed its program to support accelerated US government adoption, as well as leverage the strength and resources of government, industry, academia, and standards organization stakeholders to support cloud computing technology innovation,” the report explained.

Included in the 10 requirements in the report are a demand for focus on technical specifications that enable development of high-quality service level agreements (SLAs) in provisioning cloud services; a need for improved frameworks to support federal clouds; a need to improve cloud service metrics, including standardized units of measurement for cloud resources; and the role of parallel technologies including big data and cybersecurity in cloud services.

“Big Data subject matter experts commonly refer to cloud computing as being indistinguishable from Big Data,” according to the NIST document. “Just as cloud computing struggled with definition early in its adoption, and similarly was represented as an “old” or “new” capability depending on the perspective of those defining it, Big Data as a concept is the focus of definition and framing discussions.”

Cybersecurity also has a complicated interdependency with cloud, which “presents certain unique security challenges resulting from the cloud's very high degree of outsourcing, dependence on networks, sharing (multi-tenancy) and scale,” the roadmap explains.