This week, GoGrid was not only an exhibitor and Silver Sponsor of the Cloud Connect Event 2010 in Santa Clara, CA, but also our Lead Senior Software Engineer, Justin Kitagawa, was part of a panel titled “Writing Code for Many Clouds“.

The panel was moderated by Shlomo Swidler (Founder, Orchestratus) and the members included:

• Shashi Mysore, Product Specialist, Eucalyptus Systems
• Adrian Cole, Founder, jClouds
• George Reese, CTO, enStratus
• Michael Mayo, Rackspace
• Mitch Garnaat, President, CloudRight
• Justin Kitagawa, Lead Senior Software Engineer, GoGrid
• Sam Ramji, Vice President of Strategy, Sonoa Systems

Each panel member was allowed a few minutes to discuss how their service can be controlled programmatically via an API or other method. This is an important discussion point because many companies and developers are looking to build applications that span clouds. However prior to doing this, these developers must fully understand how a cloud is architected and can be utilized. Obviously, when building a cloud as a vendor, there are challenges and hurdles that must be overcome in the process. Each of the panelists discussed their design decisions and then answered questions presented to them by the moderator as well as by audience members.

As an attendee of this panel, I thought it important to present GoGrid’s thoughts on our own API and how we came to make the decisions behind its development. Below is a video of Justin’s presentation which covers:

• Who and What is GoGrid?
• The GoGrid Portal
• The GoGrid API
• The Anatomy of a GoGrid API Call
• A Sample API Request
• Sample Code
• GoGrid API Objects & Actions
• Challenges in Developing
• Who is the API for?

The full presentation is also available below:

If you are interested in how the GoGrid API works, I encourage you to look at the GoGrid Wiki where you can find the “Getting Started Guide” as well as the following items:

• Anatomy of GoGrid API Call
• Common API Call Patterns
• API Frequently Asked Questions
• API Libraries and Tools
• Download a GoGrid API Quick Reference Guide
• API Version Log

Also, I’m personally curious to find out if and how you are using the GoGrid API. Have you created a program to hook into our API to control scaling or deployment of servers? What about creating your own interface to our service? Please leave a comment and let me know!

A couple of weeks ago we released a new version of GoGrid which included a variety of exciting enhancements and features. Most notable are:

• GoGrid Dedicated Servers
• List View of GoGrid Objects
• Edit F5 Load Balancers via the API
• New Login Page
• Self Service Support Links

More details about these features can be found on the following GoGrid blog post. For a quick overview of the new features in the form of a screencast, please watch the video below. I quickly cover many of the items listed above including:

• Walking through the new login page
• Deploying a GoGrid Dedicated Server
• Overview of the new GoGrid List View
• Dedicated Servers showing in the Jobs Tab
• Showing of Self-Service Links in the portal
• Editing Load Balancers using the GoGrid API

If you have more questions about these new GoGrid features, I recommend that you attend our webinar (on February 24, 2010) where you can get more information about this important release. Be sure to register for the webinar and come prepared with questions!

Today, the team at GoGrid is pleased to announce several new enhancements and features to our Cloud Infrastructure Hosting service. With us, it is all about trying to make our Cloud offering as powerful as possible. To that end, we have released our latest version of GoGrid, available now! Some highlights include (each of which I will go into further details later on in this post):

• GoGrid Dedicated Servers
• List View of GoGrid Objects
• Edit f5 Load Balancers
• New Login Page
• Self-Service Support Links
• Other Items

We hope that you share our excitement about this release! Now, let’s get into the details. Also be sure to see our video that talks about many of the items listed here (Available on GoGrid YouTube channel and the GoGrid Facebook Fan Page as well.)

GoGrid Dedicated Servers

Let’s face it, we have been doing dedicated hosting for over 8 years so we do know a little bit about it. Last year, we introduced a first-to-market service that we internally called “Hybrid Hosting” which allowed users to connect GoGrid cloud infrastructure with a separate dedicated infrastructure, all within a private network. This proved to be incredibly successful, and something that many of our customers had desired. So, we decided to take it to the next level by offering Dedicated Servers within the GoGrid infrastructure.

So why is this so revolutionary and useful to our end-users? Here are some things off the top of my head:

• Now you have the flexibility of the cloud, coupled with the control and performance of dedicated hardware!
• You can deploy GoGrid Dedicated Servers from within the GoGrid portal
• GoGrid Cloud Server and GoGrid Dedicates Servers share the same IP space which means that you can easily set up private network infrastructures
• You receive one bill for your cloud or dedicated servers
• Support for both cloud and dedicated are handled in the same account
• You can restart and even delete dedicated servers on-demand via the GoGrid portal
• GoGrid Cloud & Dedicated servers have free inbound traffic and share the same data plan

Let’s get into the details.

Add Dedicated Server

We have updated the Add menu to include Dedicated Server as an option. Similarly, we have collapsed the previous Database Server and Web/App Server into Cloud Server. To deploy a new GoGrid Dedicated server, simply click on the Dedicated Server icon.

Once you choose the Add Dedicated Server option, you will be presented with a Server Details screen that asks for a server Name, Description and IP address (one of your GoGrid contiguous, static IP addresses). After that, you need to select the server option that makes the most sense to you. Current options are (note: these may change in the future and are current as of the writing of this article):

Note: custom configuration are available but interested users must contact a GoGrid Account Manager to order.

After entering the appropriate information and selecting the configuration option and pricing plan, click the Next button, and you will be asked to choose an image:

As of this writing, the options include:

• CentOS – versions 4.5 & 5.4 (32/64 bit)
• Debian – versions 4.0 & 5.0 (32/64 bit)
• Fedora – version 11 & 12 (32/64 bit)
• RHEL – version 4.8 & 5.4 (32/64 bit)
• Ubuntu – version 8.04, 9.04 & 9.10 (32/64 bit)
• Windows Server 2008/2003 – various options: Enterprise, Web, SQL Server (note: some images may have additional licensing charges)

Once you select the Image you would like on your GoGrid Dedicated Server, you will be prompted with information regarding the Pre-Paid Plan commitment and billing process. If you agree to the terms, simply click Yes, Add it.

In the top bar, you will see a confirmation that of your Dedicated Server job request:

It is important to note that it can take up to 2 business days to deploy a GoGrid Dedicated Server.

You can also check the status of your deployment request in the Jobs tab (where Dedicated Server deployments now appear in-line with Cloud Servers, Load Balancers and Cloud Storage):

The picture above shows the Dedicated Server in a “Processing” state. Once it is approved, deployed and active, the log will change to reflect that state:

Once your server is live, you have a variety of ways to manage it. For starters, should you need to, you can actively restart it from within the new List View within the GoGrid portal (see the List View section below for details).

Similarly, you can delete the Dedicated Server from the portal. Do note that since you are on a monthly plan, you will have until the end of the active month to access that server before all connectivity and data is removed from it.

Also, as with your GoGrid Cloud Servers, you can retrieve, edit and update the passwords for your GoGrid Dedicated Servers from within the Passwords tab within the Support section.

We have also integrated all of the GoGrid Objects (Dedicated & Cloud Servers, Load Balancers and Cloud Storage) into the Add a Case menu within the Support section. This way, you can request support on any GoGrid infrastructure item in one place:

Some important things to note about GoGrid Dedicated Servers:

• Dedicated Servers do not (currently) display on the Grid View but do within the List View (see section below)
• There is currently no API support for controlling GoGrid Dedicated Servers
• Under the current Service Level Agreement, provisioning time is up to 2 business days (as noted within the ordering process)
• You are billed monthly (or yearly) for GoGrid Dedicated Servers, not hourly
• Outbound bandwidth charges for Cloud and Dedicated servers are combined (inbound is free for both)
• If you accidentally delete a Dedicated Server, please open a support case immediately and we will be happy to cancel your delete request.
• If you delete a server, the IP address assigned to that server is still “held” (not available for other servers) until the server is fully removed from your account
• Restarting a Dedicated Server does not show immediate feedback the way it does with Cloud Servers. Please “ping” the server to know its actual state.
• Windows Dedicated Servers are priced per processor so please ensure that you have chosen the proper image

List View of GoGrid Objects

So, where do you find your GoGrid Dedicated Server? Easy! Within the new List View. Many GoGrid users have asked for an easier way to view all of their GoGrid objects within a list. We now have a new tab called List which displays: Load Balancers, Cloud Servers, Dedicated Servers and Cloud Storage. There are definitely some GREAT things about the new List view like being able to see a large number of servers in one view, being able to copy and paste various fields like IP address, Object name, OS info, description, etc. Read on for some more details.

Selecting that tab presents you with all of your GoGrid structure within a list format where you can sort, group and rearrange various fields within each object set. To rearrange fields, simply drag them to the column you want them in. Clicking on a column will give you the ability to group and sort on those fields. Below is the Cloud Servers list:

Load Balancers appear as well:

As does Cloud Storage:

And, of course, Dedicated Servers!

Some important things to note about the new List View:

• If you have 30 or more Cloud Servers deployed within GoGrid, the new List View will quickly become your best friend.
• Just like within the Grid View, you can Restart, Delete and Retrieve passwords via menu actions at the top of the list panel.
• If you have a MyGSI deployed within your Cloud Server environment, it will show as “true” within the Sandbox field
• You can select values within the list and copy them to your clipboard. This is useful for copying IP addresses, for example.
• The Grid View will remain the default for the time being.

Edit F5 Load Balancers

You can now edit F5 Load Balancer details using the GoGrid API. We realized that many of our users wanted this functionality a long time ago. With this release, we have taken the first steps to make this fully functional. However, while you can edit via the API, as of this writing, you cannot edit via the portal (something we will change in the future). You can actively change the Load Balancer pool information without taking the Load Balancer offline. This is helpful if you want to add or remove servers from your Load Balancer.

We have added “grid.loadbalancer.edit” to the supported methods within the GoGrid API. There is Role Based access to use this method (Super User & System User are the role types that can invoke this method).

More information on this new API method can be found on the GoGrid Wiki. Do note that this feature is currently listed as a “beta.”

However, below is a way to edit your load balancers by simply using an call using a pre-defined URL. First, you will need to have an API key and Share Secret. You can create an API key under the My Account section and API Keys tab. Then you will need to create an MD5 Signature (documentation is on the Wiki on how to do this).

Here is the info:

• Craft the base URL with the following format:

  http://api.gogrid.com/api/grid/loadbalancer/edit?v=1.4

• Then you need to chain on (append) the following items:
  • &sig=your sig
  • &api_key=your key
  • &format=“xml” or “json” or “csv”
  • &name=name of LB to edit
  • &realiplist.0.ip=real IP 0 – first real IP to add to the LB
  • &realiplist.0.port=port for real IP 0
  • &realiplist.1.ip=real IP 1 – second real IP to add to the LB
  • &realiplist.1.port=port for real IP 1
• Then, take that full URL and paste into a browser and hit Enter. That should edit the Load Balancer based on the variables you entered.

Below is a sample (with dummy data) of what the URL should look like.

http://api.gogrid.com/api/grid/loadbalancer/edit?v=1.4&sig=md5hashsignature&api_key=abcd1234apikeyhere1234&format=xml&name=My+Load+Balancer&realiplist.0.ip=192.168.10.5&realiplist.0.port=80&realiplist.1.ip=192.168.10.6&realiplist.1.port=80

(Note: the line above is a single text string, it only has been broken into separate lines for readability.) The URL above has the following variables:

• Sig = md5hashsignature (see the documentation here)
• API Key = abcd1234apikeyhere1234
• Format = XML
• Name = My Load Balancer (Note: if your load balancer has spaces in the name, you should URL-escape them with either a “+” or “%20″) so that would look like “My+Load+Balancer” or “My%20Load%20Balancer”
• IP address of 1st server = 192.168.10.5
• Port of the 1st server = 80
• IP address of the 2nd server = 192.168.10.6
• Port of the 2nd server = 80

New Login Page

The GoGrid Web Portal login page also now has a new look & feel. We wanted to provide relevant information and links within that page so that you don’t have to go searching around for information. In the new login page, you can now find:

• New to GoGrid section – Getting Started Guide and GoGrid Wiki/Forum/Blog links
• Featured Content – important content related to GoGrid’s Features or Services will be displayed here
• GoGrid Exchange – looking for a particular partner image? This link takes you to the GoGrid Exchange.
• Featured Exchange Partner – look for highlighted Partners here

Self-Service Support Links

Making our user experience better on GoGrid is paramount. To that end, we have added a variety of links to make things a bit easier on the end user. For example, you can now quickly visit the GoGrid Wiki page that describes how to request that SMTP be unblocked for your GoGrid infrastructure:

Similarly, we have added some other helpful links within the portal to the GoGrid Wiki and User Forums:

And, as mentioned previously, we will provide full support within the GoGrid portal for all objects within GoGrid’s infrastructure. You can also use the Live Support Chat link to instantly chat with a GoGrid Support Specialist.

Other Items

As mentioned in this blog post, we are also end-of-life-ing a few older Red Hat Enterprise and CentOS servers.

Also, we have added a link to the GoGrid CDN within the portal. From this link, you can access the login page for the GoGrid CDN.

There was some pretty exciting stuff in this release and we would love to get your feedback. Drop us a note or leave a comment on this post if you have suggestions, comments or questions.

Sometimes it is important to reflect back on activities and achievements of the past year in order to focus on the road ahead. 2009 was a year full of “firsts” and exciting announcements for GoGrid and I thought that I would quickly summarize and highlight a some blog posts of interest.

I have personally enjoyed documenting our achievements, analyzing trends, reviewing opportunities, showcasing new clients and partners as well as musing about Cloud Computing in general. Much of the writing on the GoGrid blog during 2009 was my own, however, the people who have helped provide me inspiration are countless, ranging from those within GoGrid to others creating the cloud community at large.

The journey through 2009 has definitely been an exciting one. Looking back on 2009 should make all users, creators and consumers of the cloud very proud. We have done a tremendous amount in 2009! So without further ado, below are a few selected posts of interest from the GoGrid blog for each month during 2009.

January 2009

• “Cloudcenters Are Datacenters In The Sky” – in this post, Randy Bias outlines his vision of what the “cloudcenter” meme truly is and how it is unique
• “Building A House In The Cloud – Cloudcenters Vs. Infrastructure Web Services” – in this post, I tried to simplify some of the differences between our new term of “cloudcenter” and “infrastructure web services” using a comparison to building a house.
• “GoGrid Releases API Specification To The Cloud Computing Community Under Creative Commons License” – GoGrid released our Application Programming Interface (API) under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 License which allows users to share, distribute, display and make derivative works based on our API
• “New Windows Server 2003 & 2008 Images Added To GoGrid” – we continued to build out our Windows Server 2003 and 2008 image offering as the first to market with Windows Server 2008 in the Cloud
• All January posts are here

February 2009

• “Robert Scoble & FastCompany.TV Visit & Interview GoGrid” – we had some fun with Robert when he came to visit the GoGrid offices. Of course, this was a few weeks prior to him moving to a competitor of ours.
• “New Larger RAM Instances Now Available On GoGrid” – as the GoGrid infrastructure began to grow, we realized that customers wants larger instances with more persistent storage and RAM allocations.
• ““10 Obstacles To Cloud Computing” By UC Berkeley & How GoGrid Hurdles Them” – UC Berkeley came out with a comprehensive study on Cloud Computing. I didn’t agree with a lot of what was written so I posted my rebuttal.
• “Press Release: Appistry EAF Community Edition Available On GoGrid” – one of our first technology partners, Appistry, makes their product available on GoGrid.
• All February posts are here

March 2009

• “GoGrid Whitepaper: “Scaling Your Internet Business”” – Randy Bias produced a great whitepaper that discusses how web applications scale, scalability with the cloud, thinking through a choosing a scaling strategy and options available.
• “Navigating The Layers Of The Cloud Computing Pyramid” – a deeper analysis of the Cloud Pyramid, a term I coined in 2008.
• “Understanding GoGrid And Cloud Standards” – Randy Bias provides an analysis of the Cloud and standards therein, especially as related to the Open Cloud Manifesto (OCM).
• “Message From GoGrid Founders Regarding Denial Of Service Attack” – GoGrid survived heavy a DDoS attack which was targeted at a variety of hosting and internet service providers.
• All March posts are here

April 2009

• “New Feature: Job History – A Log File For GoGrid” – we continued to roll out new features and enhancements to GoGrid, including the Job History.
• “How To Set Up High Availability Web Applications In The Cloud Using GoGrid” – this was an interesting project that we undertook to showcase how to set up a redundant and resilient web application infrastructure using GoGrid.
• “Planning For The New GoGrid Feature – MyGSIs” – MyGSIs (personal server images) were just around the corner and I wanted to ensure that current GoGrid users were up-to-speed on the functionality therein.
• “Press Release: “ServePath Named ‘Cool Vendor’ By Leading Analyst Firm”” – GoGrid’s parent company, ServePath, was named “Cool Vendor” by Gartner.
• All April post are here

May 2009

• “McKinsey’s McCrazy! Flying Through The Clouds With Eyes 1/2 Closed” – McKinsey published a report “Clearing the air on cloud computing” which caused quite a stir within the cloud community. I was one of those “stirred up” readers and published my rebuttal to it.
• “Press Release: GoGrid And AppZero Partner To Ease Movement Of Windows Server Applications To The Cloud – another GoGrid technology partner, AppZero, was added to our growing list of Partners.
• “Network World Puts GoGrid In “10 Cloud Computing Companies To Watch” List” – recognition of GoGrid continued to grow within the technical press arena with Network World chiming in on GoGrid being one to watch
• “Video: GoGrid Cloud Computing Demo” – I started doing some screencasts of GoGrid in action and this was the first showcasing our award-winning GUI.
• All May posts are here

June 2009

• “Press Release: Cloud Computing Provider GoGrid Enables Highly Scalable Web Applications Using Zeus Technology” – Zeus Technology was added as a GoGrid technology partner, bringing an application traffic management solution to the GoGrid cloud.
• “Newsletter: GoGrid Customer Update V1.9” – since not all parties who were interested in GoGrid receive the GoGrid Customer Update, we started publishing it to the blog.
• “Last Chance – GoGrid Free Trial Credit Ends July 2nd!” – GoGrid was one of the only Cloud providers to offer a “free trial”. As our service matured, we decided to remove the $50 credit that all users were receiving.
• All June posts are here

July 2009

• “New Version Of GoGrid Released: Server Image Selection, RAM, API And Architecture Changes” – we revamped the Server Image Selection widget to allow for better usability.
• “Press Release: GoGrid Placed In Visionaries “Magic Quadrant”” – GoGrid was placed in the “Magic Quadrant” by Gartner, something that was very exciting for us!
• “Press Release: SOASTA Announces Cloud-Based Performance Certification Program For Websites And Applications” – GoGrid announces support for the CloudTest On-Demand service.
• All July posts are here

August 2009

• “Introducing GoGrid Version 2.0” – this was a huge accomplishment for us as we released GoGrid 2.0 to the general public which included: MyGSIs (personal server images), improved deployment times and other features & enhancements.
• “Press Release: GoGrid And Stratonomic To Enable Disaster Recovery In The Cloud” – GoGrid and Stratonomic partner to provide Disaster Recovery solutions using the GoGrid cloud.
• “GoGrid Officially Out Of Beta!” – after 1.5 years of running under a public beta (fully supported however under our SLA), we officially removed the beta tag from the GoGrid core infrastructure offering.
• “GoGrid Says: We’ll Load Your Data Into The Cloud” – we added a service to allow people to physically ship their hard drives to us for data loading to GoGrid Cloud Storage.
• All August posts are here

September 2009

• “3 GoGrid Executives Discuss Their Thoughts On VMWorld 2009, The Cloud & GoGrid” – after our recent participation in VMWorld 2009, I spent some time interviewing some of the GoGrid executives on their thoughts of the show.
• “GoGrid Updates MyGSI Features: Edit, Delete & Restore & Other Changes” – we continued to improve on the new MyGSI features and functions as well as some other infrastructure enhancements.
• “Video: Edit, Delete & Restore GoGrid’s MyGSIs & Billing Widget Explained” – another screencast showcasing some new GoGrid features related to MyGSIs.
• “Announcing Microsoft WebsiteSpark Fortified With GoGrid, ServePath & Hybrid Hosting” – GoGrid becomes a WebsiteSpark Hosting Partner.
• “Newsletter: GoGrid Customer Update – October 2009” – our newsletter to GoGrid customers discussed the recent enhancements to the service.
• All September posts are here

October 2009

• “Press Release: GoGrid & GigaSpaces Join Forces To Create An Enterprise-Grade PaaS Offering For Java And .NET” – GoGrid and GigaSpaces partner to enable GigaSpaces XAP in the GoGrid Cloud.
• “The Microsoft/Danger/T-Mobile Sidekick Fiasco Is NOT A Failure Of Cloud Computing!” – when Danger/T-Mobile had issues with their data service, people immediately started calling it a failure of the cloud. I wrote about how I disagreed with this statement.
• “Intel’s Latest Generation Microarchitecture, Codenamed “Nehalem” To Power GoGrid Cloud” – GoGrid pursues the use of Intel’s new Nehalem chipsets within the GoGrid cloud.
• All October posts are here

November 2009

• “CNN Copies GoGrid’s “Cloud Computing Explained” Video?” – CNN produced a “Cloud Computing Explained” video which was eerily similar to the one we produced (which has over 120,000 views)
• “Interviews At Sys-Con Cloud Computing Expo ‘09: F5 Networks And GoGrid” – while we were exhibiting at the Sys-Con Cloud Computing Expo, I spent some time with our partner F5 talking about the cloud.
• “Scale Your Web Presence Globally Via GoGrid Content Delivery Network (CDN)” – GoGrid announced a worldwide Content Delivery Network for GoGrid customers.
• “GoGrid Announces New Pricing & More Volume Discount Plans” – as GoGrid continued to mature, we decided to provide greater discounts and more RAM/Bandwidth allocation within each plan.
• “Newsletter: GoGrid Customer Update – November 2009” – our November newsletter was delivered to customers and we provided the update on the blog.
• “Rapidly Develop, Test & Deploy Windows Azure Applications Using The GoGrid Cloud” – GoGrid and Azure are showcased in a video demonstrating how the two can be used to work with Azure application development and testing.
• All November posts are here

December 2009

• “GoGrid Exchange: BitNami Open Source Web Applications Images Available” – GoGrid launches Partner GSIs with BitNami providing Open Source web Application images within the GoGrid cloud.
• “GoGrid Exchange: GigaSpaces XAP On GoGrid Enterprise Cloud Now Available” – GigaSpaces XAP becomes available within the GoGrid Exchange.
• All December posts are here

Whew! If you made it all the way to the end of this post, I congratulate you! If you have read all of the linked articles, you deserve an award or are truly a GoGrid Fan (by the way, be sure to become a fan of GoGrid on our Facebook page).

I hope that 2009 was as outstanding for you as it was for us!

It’s important to us to clarify GoGrid’s position with regard to cloud computing standards and the Open Cloud Manifesto (OCM). There has been a fair bit of controversy in the ‘blogosphere’ recently over the OCM, which is to be released on Monday.

In particular, myself and Steve Gillmor (of TechCrunch IT fame among others), had a somewhat heated, but friendly exchange over his scathing assessment of the situation. Steve invited me to a “News Gang” podcast of the Gillmor Gang on Friday, which was posted here. During that live podcast he asked us to clarify GoGrid’s position.

This post is really about making sure everyone is on the same page and understands how GoGrid views the OCM and cloud computing standards in general.

Background
It’s unnecessary to recap everything in detail. I think James Urquhart handled this fairly succinctly. Geva Perry also has a nice summary including a link to the draft document. In a nut:

1. Some folks tried to lay down some guiding principles for “open” cloud computing in the Open Cloud Manifesto
2. Some folks reacted badly feeling that the process wasn’t actually “open”
3. Bruhaha ensued

Who cares?

Well, we all should really. From our perspective this is a healthy, yet contentious debate. We think there were good points and missteps on all sides. In particular, we think it’s important to realize that given how interconnected we’re all becoming it’s actually very hard for any given group to monopolize the Internet, the “cloud”, or similar.

We believe the following to be true about what happened:

• The folks involved in the early Open Cloud Manifesto did not intend to “shut out” anyone
• The process around building the Open Cloud Manifesto could have been more ‘open’
• The manifesto is not about setting a standard, but starting a conversation
• This “conversation” is meant to be about principles that already apply to the Internet

Position on Open Cloud Manifesto
We continue to be an enthusiastic supporter of the Open Cloud Manifesto (OCM) and open cloud standards in general. That’s why we licensed our own API under an open license in January. The OCM is an important move forward in the emerging debate about what “Cloud” and “Cloud Computing” mean. We do not support any kind of exclusion in the OCM or of folks who want to be it’s supporters. We believe everyone needs to have a say in these guiding principles. In fact the OCM itself is largely about saying how much “The Cloud” needs to be open, unfettered, and democratized.

That means everyone needs to be involved.

Summary
Simply put: contentious conversations, vibrant arguments, and great people will all eventually yield the right results. We don’t think it’s possible for anyone to cordon off and monopolize this conversation, foist standards on others, and won’t support such efforts. And, we don’t think the Open Cloud Manifesto is anything but a well-intentioned attempt to move the conversation forward. One that was never meant to be ‘closed’ and come Monday when it’s officially released we’ll see that it’s a positive move and all of the folks who worked together on the OCM (including Reuven Cohen, IBM, and many others) should be commended for their attempts to get everyone on the same page even in the face of extreme controversy.

–Randy