OSCON 2010 - Cloud Standards Debate

What We Need are Standards in the Cloud

If a standard falls in the forest and there is nobody there to adopt it, is it still a standard?

My name is Benjamin Black

And I have no standards.

Let’s talk about something interesting, instead:

Technology adoption.

Customer-centric view

Why adopt a technology?

Utility:

Does this solve my problem?

Interoperability:

Can I combine vendors+products to solve my problem?

Independence:

Can I be totally free of vendor lock-in?

Utility

Interoperability Utility

Independence Interoperability Utility

These are not equal.

A hierarchy of needs.

Utility

Interoperability Utility

Independence Interoperability Utility

Some problems need not go past UTILITY.

e.g., SQL (in reality)

Some problems can’t achieve UTILITY without INTEROP.

e.g., TCP/IP

The cycle:

1] Disruption.

MASSIVE UTILITY

(and a lot of imperfection)

Rapid adoption (by deﬁnition)

2] Competition.

EXPLORATION

Endless variety

Goal: Discovery

Not just of solutions.

But of the complete problem.

Many ‘standards’

(meaning no standard)

The seeds of interop are sown.

We are currently in this stage.

3] Maturation.

FORMALIZATION

Our itch having been scratched, we turn to less pressing matters.

Independence

Successful standards formalize what is already true.

Standards are side-effects

of successful technology.

There are no successful standards absent successful implementations.

All successful standards are de facto standards.

TANSTAAFL

Ra t e o f I n n o v a t i o n De g r e e o f S t a n d a r d i z a t i o n

Utility Ra t e o f I n n o v a t i o n De g r e e o f S t a n d a r d i z a t i o n

Utility Ra t e o f I n n o v a t i o n Interoperability De g r e e o f S t a n d a r d i z a t i o n

Utility Ra t e o f I n n o v a t i o n Interoperability Independence De g r e e o f S t a n d a r d i z a t i o n

(the innovation moves elsewhere)

Standardize too soon, and you lock to the wrong thing.

Unclear that it is even possible to standardize ‘too late’.

We have missed an important question:

What do we even mean by ‘standard’?

Standard

Standard Standard speciﬁcation

Standard Standard speciﬁcation Standard committee

Standard:

What everybody uses.

Utility + Disruption Standard

Standard speciﬁcation:

What someone hopes you’ll use.

Interoperability Standard speciﬁcation

Standard committees:

The legislative branch.

Independence Standard committee

Concerned with:

Licensing Patent grants Open process Interoperable implementations Open source etc.

Special bonuses:

Politiks Permanent seats Preferential votes Secret handshakes etc.

If you don’t achieve UTILITY...

Customers won’t bother.

They want their problems solved.

Standard committees don’t build.

We can only discover the right standards by building and exploring.

To discover the right standards, we must eschew standards.

Go do.

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OSCON 2010 - Cloud Standards Debate

by Benjamin Black

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