Aims of establishing the

“Global Inter-Cloud Technology Forum”

  As ICT services continue to grow in sophistication and diversity, a paradigm shift is taking place from “owning” to “leasing” IT. As a result, “cloud systems” are expected to penetrate the market rapidly as a social infrastructure on which new value will be created. Services provided by cloud systems (hereinafter “cloud services”) are expected to develop into a large market in Japan, which already has a high-speed, broadband network infrastructure in place, because these services not only enable users to employ applications flexibly and securely at low cost but also enable both providers and users to reduce energy consumption.

  However, cloud systems have not yet reached the level that would allow their application to mission-critical fields, such as e-government, medical care and finance, in terms of reliability, ability to respond quickly, data quality and security. To achieve reliability and quality high enough to meet the requirements in these fields, it is necessary to interconnect multiple cloud systems via a broadband network and provide a mechanism that would allow them to interwork with, and complement, each other.

  In light of the fact that each provider is currently building cloud systems based on its proprietary specifications, we propose the establishment of the “Global Inter-Cloud Technology Forum” to promote standardization of network protocols and the interfaces through which cloud systems interwork with each other, to promote international interworking of cloud systems, to enable global provision of highly reliable, secure and high-quality cloud services, and to contribute to the development Japan’s ICT industry and to the strengthening of its international competitiveness.

Representative of the Founders:    Tomonori Aoyama