NIST’s Cloud Roadmap Now Available
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released its final edition of its report entitled US Government Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap Volumes I and II. The report goes into detail about cloud computing and touches on many of the objectives of the federal government’s Cloud First initiative. A press release highlighting the reports public release says that the “Final document reflects the input from more than 200 comments on the initial draft received from around the world.” NIST also adds that “The roadmap leverage’s the strengths and resources of government, industry, academia and standards development organizations to support technology innovation in cloud computing.”
NIST’s cloud roadmap volume 1 documents each of the five main categories of cloud which are described at cloud security, cloud interoperability, cloud performance, cloud accessibility and cloud portability. In regards to the federal government adopting a cloud solution, the NIST list went into a bit more detail laying out 10 broad requirements of federally contracted cloud services. In Volume 2, NIST digs a bit deeper and adds additional requirements to the comprehensive government report.
In their press release dated October 22nd, NIST mentions, “The second volume, Useful Information for Cloud Adopters, introduces a conceptual model, the NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture and Taxonomy and presents U.S. government cloud target business and technical use cases.”
The release goes on to say, “Volume II also identifies existing interoperability, portability and security standards that apply to the cloud model and specifies high-priority gaps that need new or revised standards, guidance and technology. It also covers security challenges in cloud computing adoption. The document provides insight into the choice of the 10 requirements and the Priority Action Plans listed in Volume I.”
For more information about the NIST Cloud Computing Roadmap, you can visit NIST.gov in order to request a transcript of the report.
