Welcome to the NIST Cloud Computing Collaboration Site

General Information

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been designated by Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra to accelerate the federal government’s secure adoption of cloud computing by leading efforts to develop standards and guidelines in close consultation and collaboration with standards bodies, the private sector, and other stakeholders. Computer science researchers at NIST are working on two complementary efforts to speed the government’s quick and secure adoption of cloud computing.

NIST's long term goal is to provide thought leadership and guidance around the cloud computing paradigm to catalyze its use within industry and government. NIST aims to shorten the adoption cycle, which will enable near-term cost savings and increased ability to quickly create and deploy safe and secure enterprise applications. NIST aims to foster cloud computing systems and practices that support interoperability, portability, and security requirements that are appropriate and achievable for important usage scenarios.

The NIST area of focus is technology, and specifically, interoperability, portability and security requirements, standards and guidance. The intent is use the strategy to prioritize NIST tactical projects which support US government agencies in the secure and effective adoption of the cloud computing model to support their missions.The expectation is that the set of priorities (“the Roadmap”) will be useful more broadly by industry, Standards Development Organizations, cloud adopters, and policy makers.

This wiki is an open collaboration site for the Cloud Computing (CC) community to work with NIST in developing this framework. All material placed here is in the public domain (Please see the intellectual property statement at the bottom of this page). If you want to contribute content to this wiki, please go to NIST Cloud Computing Program website, read the page carefully and follow the instructions.

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Working Groups of NIST Cloud Computing

As part of the NIST plan, Working Groups were created as a public/private ownership to define standards. Follow the links below to go directly to the working group pages.

• Reference Architecture and Taxonomy
• Standards Acceleration to Jumpstart the Adoption of Cloud Computing (SAJACC)
• Cloud Security
• Cloud Forensic Science
• Standards Roadmap
• Cloud Accessibility
• Cloud Services
  
• Cloud Interoperability
  
• Cloud Federated
  
• Business Use Cases

Public Working Group Guidance

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cloud Computing Program focuses on the development of community-based guidelines, metrics, and standards that accelerate the adoption of cloud computing. This effort is undertaken in partnership with interested Federal, commercial, and private sector parties through the formation of Public Working Groups. This document summarizes the key provisions for forming and managing these Working Groups.

Formation and Scope: Public Working Groups are established by the NIST Cloud Computing Program to pursue its goals for accelerating the adoption of cloud computing through a combined public-private effort. Input from government, commercial, and academic sector individuals and entities is considered by the Program in evaluating the formation or dissolution of a Public Working Group, including its initial and continuing scope and tasking.

Membership: Participation in a Public Working Group is open and free to all interested parties; there are no membership fees.

Leadership: Public Working Groups are led by NIST staff acting as Chairs and/or Co-Chairs.

Liaisons: To promote coordination among the Working Groups, individual Groups may designate liaisons to one or more other Groups as needed.

Sub-groups: Each Public Working Group may create one or more sub-groups to focus on a specific task and an associated deliverable. Any deliverables or recommendations of the sub-group are advisory only to the parent Working Group. Sub-groups are dissolved at the completion of their tasking or at any time upon the direction of the parent Working Group.

Sub-group Leadership: The heads of sub-groups - “Leaders” and/or “Co-Leaders” - are designated by the NIST Chair or Co-chair of the parent Working Group from among the Working Group membership based on knowledge and interest in the sub-group tasking.

Meeting Frequency: Each Working Group will establish its own schedule for meetings and teleconferences.

Products: The products of Working Groups prepared at the direction of NIST staff and/or its designated representatives are subject to NIST review and are intended for public release at NIST’s discretion.

Cloud Computing Events

• Upcoming Cloud Computing Events - NIST Cloud Computing Forum and Workshop IX, September 13, 14, and 15, 2016, at the NIST campus, Gaithersburg, MD. The theme is Cloud and the Interconnected World.
• Previous Cloud Computing Events