BASDA launch ‘Cloud’ Special Interest Group

Reflecting the growth in online business applications, a number of BASDA members have set up a Cloud special interest group (SIG) with a view to raising the profile of business Cloud computing applications, exploring ideas around standards and best practice and producing deliverables that benefit both members, partners and end users.

The first meeting, held on 16th June, attracted a wide range of members – from both traditional business application suppliers moving into online business applications and newer online application vendors - who discussed at some length the issues surrounding online business software, a sign of the overall industry interest in the Cloud computing arena.

One of the key issues raised was the apparent confusion relating to the terminology and technology around  ‘cloud/Saas/online computing’ and concerns about how to embrace or approach it. 

In order to address these concerns, the primary aim of the group is to help people understand the potential benefits and limitations of implementing cloud applications through an education and communication campaign.  Part of this will be to initiate a dialogue between developers, end users, and vendors.   In addition, BASDA members will collaborate to produce a Cloud Computing Handbook to explain, particularly to end users, what ‘Cloud computing’ means and gain further feedback through a survey of delegates at the Business Cloud 9 Summit in December in London.

The other main discussion point was the recent emergence of various Cloud Platforms and the Open Cloud Manifesto.  It was noted that the larger, more established software companies such as IBM, Novell and SAP appeared to be signing up to the manifesto in order to try and set the industry standards moving forward.  However, in contrast, the newer purely Cloud-focused companies such as Google, Amazon and Salesforce.com weren’t willing to sign up, and were concentrating on creating and promoting their own Cloud Platforms, in order to become the platform of choice for future Cloud development. 

In response to this, the BASDA Cloud SIG will invite the major platform providers to show and explain their respective platforms and answer questions from BASDA members.    

Matt Holmes, MD of Liquid Accounts Ltd was voted in as Chair of the BASDA Cloud SIG, and David Turner, Group Marketing Director from CODA was voted in as Deputy Chair. 

BASDA Director General, Jairo Rojas said, 'We are delighted with the response from so many companies wanting to join forces with BASDA on this issue and thank Matt and Liquid Accounts for showing leadership in getting the group started. BASDA recognises the need to kick-start the industry debate on such an important new concept as Cloud Computing.'

The BASDA Cloud SIG is supported by other partners including the National Computing Centre and Sift Media.