Open Compute and ODCA to Collaborate

Will it be the beginning of a productive friendship? Working toward the goal of standards-based, interoperable cloud computing, the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) and Open Compute Project (OCP) launched a collaborative effort at the Intel Developer Forum 2011 to accelerate the adoption of cloud standards. The initiative also hopes to further efficient data center and infrastructure design; spur rapid hardware innovation; and encourage greater openness and industry collaboration. Intel serves as technical adviser to the ODCA. This seven-minute video (below) features Kirk Skaugen, Intel, and Frank Frankovsky, Facebook's Open Compute lead, discussing how this partnership will benefit enterprises.

When Facebook open sourced its infrastructure, people asked "how applicable is this design strategy that Facebook has taken in the broader enterprise space? All enterprises want to move to a very highly efficient compute infrastructure," Frankovsky said. This partnership will bring that efficiency to the enterprise, he said.

The Open Data Center Alliance, which is now comprised of more than 300 companies that represent over $100 billion in annual IT spending, this spring published the first release of usage models for Open Specifications for Cloud Computing. The Open Compute Project also recently published the first series of specifications for efficient motherboard, server and data center design. Members of both organizations are engaging in joint projects initially focused on rack-scale infrastructure; ultra-efficient server and storage designs; and scalable, open systems management.

The groups announced that members of ODCA infrastructure working group will collaborate with selected engineering projects of the Open Compute Project. In turn, the ODCA opens up a broader customer base to help to evaluate, support and innovate Open Compute hardware and specifications. More developments will be released Oct. 27 at the Open Compute Summit in New York, the groups said.

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