The Open Data Center Alliance is an independent organization created in Oct. 2010 with the assistance of Intel to coordinate the development of standards for cloud computing.
Approximately 100 companies, which account for more than $50bn of IT spending, have joined the Alliance, including BMW, Royal Dutch Shell and Marriott Hotels.
To further its roadmap development, the steering committee established five initial technical workgroups in the areas of infrastructure, management, regulation & ecosystem, security and services.
[2] The steering committee consists of BMW, Capgemini, China Life, China Unicom Group, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, Inc., National Australia Bank, Royal Dutch Shell, Terremark and UBS.
"While it's unclear how successful this alliance will be, it is at least shedding the spotlight on cloud interoperability, a big emerging issue," said Larry Dignan of ZDNet.