Open Cloud Computing Interface
Encyclopedia
The Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI) (TM) comprises a set of open community-lead specifications delivered through the Open Grid Forum
, which define how infrastructure service providers can deliver their compute, data, and network resource offerings through a standardized interface. OCCI has a set of implementations that act as proofs of concept. It builds upon World Wide Web fundamentals by using the proven REST
(Representational State Transfer) approach for interaction and delivers an extensible model for interacting with “as-a-Service” services.
IaaS is one of three primary segments of the emerging cloud computing industry in which compute, storage and network resources are provided as services. The API is based on a review of existing service-provider functionality and a set of use cases contributed by the working group's members. OCCI is a boundary API that acts as a service front-end to an IaaS provider’s internal infrastructure management framework. OCCI provides commonly understood semantics, syntax and a means of management in the domain of consumer-to-provider IaaS. It covers management of the entire life-cycle of OCCI-defined model entities and is compatible with existing standards such as the Open Virtualisation Format (OVF) and the Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI)
. Notably, it serves as an integration point for standardization efforts including DMTF
, IETF
and SNIA
.
Several implementations have been released and are available for use, or are scheduled to be released soon. Complementing these are a variety of developer tools .
Open Grid Forum
The Open Grid Forum is a community of users, developers, and vendors for standardization of grid computing. It was formed in 2006 in a merger of the Global Grid Forum and the Enterprise Grid Alliance. The OGSA, OGSI, and JSDL standards were created by the OGF...
, which define how infrastructure service providers can deliver their compute, data, and network resource offerings through a standardized interface. OCCI has a set of implementations that act as proofs of concept. It builds upon World Wide Web fundamentals by using the proven REST
Representational State Transfer
Representational state transfer is a style of software architecture for distributed hypermedia systems such as the World Wide Web. The term representational state transfer was introduced and defined in 2000 by Roy Fielding in his doctoral dissertation...
(Representational State Transfer) approach for interaction and delivers an extensible model for interacting with “as-a-Service” services.
Scope
The aim of the Open Cloud Computing Interface is the development of an open specification and API for cloud offerings. The current focus is on Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) based offerings but the interface can be extended to support Platform and Software as a Service offerings as well.IaaS is one of three primary segments of the emerging cloud computing industry in which compute, storage and network resources are provided as services. The API is based on a review of existing service-provider functionality and a set of use cases contributed by the working group's members. OCCI is a boundary API that acts as a service front-end to an IaaS provider’s internal infrastructure management framework. OCCI provides commonly understood semantics, syntax and a means of management in the domain of consumer-to-provider IaaS. It covers management of the entire life-cycle of OCCI-defined model entities and is compatible with existing standards such as the Open Virtualisation Format (OVF) and the Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI)
Cloud Data Management Interface
Cloud Data Management Interface determines what interface will be utilized to access and manage cloud storage.The Cloud Data Management Interface defines the functional interface that applications will use to create, retrieve, update and delete data elements from the Cloud...
. Notably, it serves as an integration point for standardization efforts including DMTF
Distributed Management Task Force
Distributed Management Task Force is an industry organization that develops, maintains and promotes standards for systems management in enterprise IT environments. These standards allow for building systems management infrastructure components in a platform-independent and technology-neutral way...
, IETF
Internet Engineering Task Force
The Internet Engineering Task Force develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standards bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite...
and SNIA
Storage Networking Industry Association
An association of producers and consumers of storage networking products, whose goal is to further storage networking technology and applications.The Storage Networking Industry Association, or SNIA, was incorporated in December, 1997, and is a registered 501 non-profit trade association...
.
Context
OCCI began in March 2009 and was initially led by co-chairs from SUN Microsystems, RabbitMQ and Universidad Computense de Madrid. Today, the working group has over 250 members and includes numerous individuals, industry and academic parties. The OCCI community works in a distributed, open community under the umbrella of the Open Grid Forum (OGF), using a wiki and a mailing list for collaboration. The governance model ensures rights for every voice through the OCCI working group as an open body. Anyone can join and participate freely. Some of these members that have contributed include:- Industry: Rackspace, Oracle, Platform Computing, GoGrid, Cisco, Flexiscale, ElasticHosts, CloudCentral, RabbitMQ, CohesiveFT, CloudCentral.
- Academia & Research: SLA@SOI, RESERVOIR, the Claudia Project, OpenStack, OpenNebula, DGSI.
Driving Development
- Interoperability: allow different Cloud providers to work together without data schema/format translation, facade/proxying between APIs and understanding and/or dependency on multiple APIs
- Portability: no technical/vendor lock-in and enable services to move between providers allows clients to easily switch between providers based on business objectives (e.g., cost) with minimal technical costs, thus enabling and fostering competition.
- Integration: the specification can be implemented with both the latest infrastructures or legacy ones.
Implementations and Supports
| Project | OCCI link |
|---|---|
| OpenNebula OpenNebula OpenNebula is an open-source cloud computing toolkit for managing heterogeneous distributed data center infrastructures. The OpenNebula toolkit manages a data center's virtual infrastructure to build private, public and hybrid IaaS clouds... |
OCCI supports |
| SLA@SOI | automated infrastructure service-level agreements using OCCI |
| Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare The Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare is the coordinating institution for nuclear, particle and astroparticle physics in Italy. It was founded on the 8th of August 1951, to further the nuclear physics research tradition initiated by Enrico Fermi in Rome, in the 1930s... |
uses OCCI to power their on-demand computing infrastructure |
Several implementations have been released and are available for use, or are scheduled to be released soon. Complementing these are a variety of developer tools .