Yesterday at Management World Americas, TM Forum announced the formation of the Enterprise Cloud Buyers Council (ECBC), a consortium of major industry players that will work toward removing the barriers to enterprise use of hosted cloud computing.

Initial members of the ECBC include Microsoft, IBM, HP, Cisco, AT&T, BT, EMC, Deutsche Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Alcatel-Lucent, Amdocs, CA, Nokia Siemens Networks, Telecom Italia and Telstra, as well as industry organizations, including the Distributed Management Task Force and the IT Service Management Forum.

The ECBC has already gained recognition within the industry as evidenced by extensive coverage from a number of trade journals and web sites:

http://www.cio.com/article/510314/Microsoft_Cisco_IBM_and_Others_Form_Cloud_Computing_Group

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/184063/microsoft_cisco_ibm_and_others_form_cloud_computing_group.html

 http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/120909-microsoft-cisco-ibm-and-others.html?hpg1=bn

http://www.von.com/news/cloud-buyers-council-lead-tm-forum-initiative.html

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=185536

http://www.cable360.net/technology/news/TM-Forum-Creates-Cloud-Services-Council_38946.html

http://telephonyonline.com/business_services/news/group-cloud-input-1208/