Cloud Services Initiative

Cloud services, (such as cloud computing, storage and applications) represent a significant evolution in the use and provision of digital information services for business effectiveness.   While market hype and growth in cloud services is at an all time high, we are just at the beginning of the development of a commercial market of sellers and buyers of such services. Yet already the market is becoming littered with a confusing array of technical features, names, terms, and proprietary operating characteristics.  As buyers start to look in detail at using these services,  it is clear that a number of barriers to adoption are becoming evident.

The primary objective of TM Forum’s Cloud Services Initiative is help the industry overcome these barriers to adoption and assist the growth of a vibrant commercial marketplace for cloud-based services.  We do this by enabling collaborative work between major buyers and sellers as well other industry organizations that specialize in various aspects of this emerging market. The aim is to agree common approaches on important aspects of cloud services that will reduce buyer resistance. These are aspects such as a common terminology, transparent movement between cloud providers; security issues and benchmarking.