Grid and Cloud Computing Technology: Interoperability and Standardization for the Telecommunications Industry

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute formed the Grid Technical Committee (TC GRID) in 2006 with participation from over 20 organizations spanning private sector, government, and academia. It had a specific mandate to address the convergence of the IT and Telecommunications industries in particular in the domain of interoperability. Grid computing, while having originated in the public sector, was experiencing a high degree of interest from commercial organizations. TC GRID intended to study the state of the art in grid computing standards, technology, and systems to evaluate their suitability for commercial adoption. In 2007 a Specialist Task Force (STF) was formed with a 2 year programme to provide a series of technical reports studying stakeholders, standards, technology, interoperability, and gaps.