Proposed Charter for OASIS Identity in the Clouds TC

[Mary McRae <mary.mcrae@oasis-open.org>]

To OASIS Members:

  A draft TC charter has been submitted to establish the OASIS Identity in the Clouds Technical Committee (below). In accordance with the OASIS TC Process Policy section 2.2:
(http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/process-2009-07-30.php#formation) the proposed charter is hereby submitted for comment. The comment period shall remain open until 11:45 pm ET on 19 January 2010.

  OASIS maintains a mailing list for the purpose of submitting comments on proposed charters. Any OASIS member may post to this list by sending email to:
mailto:oasis-charter-discuss@lists.oasis-open.org. All messages will be publicly archived at:
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/oasis-charter-discuss/. Members who wish to receive emails must join the group by selecting "join group" on the group home page:
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/oasis-charter-discuss/. Employees of organizational members do not require primary representative approval to subscribe to the oasis-charter-discuss e-mail.

  A telephone conference will be held among the Convener, the OASIS TC Administrator, and those proposers who wish to attend within four days of the close of the comment period. The announcement and call-in information will be noted on the OASIS Charter Discuss Group Calendar.

  We encourage member comment and ask that you note the name of the proposed TC (IIC) in the subject line of your email message.

Regards,

Mary


Mary P McRae
Director, Standards Development
Technical Committee Administrator
OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information society
email: mary.mcrae@oasis-open.org 
web: www.oasis-open.org
twitter: @fiberartisan #oasisopen
phone: 1.603.232.9090


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OASIS IDENTITY IN THE CLOUDS TC
 
Name
OASIS Identity In the Clouds Technical Committee.
 
Statement of Purpose
Cloud Computing is turning into an important IT service delivery paradigm. Many enterprises are experimenting with cloud computing, using clouds in their own data centers or hosted by third parties, and increasingly they deploy business applications on such private and public clouds.
 
Cloud Computing raises many challenges that have serious security implications.  Identity Management in the clouds is such a challenge.
 
Many enterprises avail themselves of a combination of private and public Cloud Computing infrastructures to handle their workloads. In a phenomenon known as "Cloud Bursting", the peak loads are offloaded to public Cloud computing infrastructures that offer billing based on usage. This is a use case of a Hybrid Cloud infrastructure.
 
Additionally, governments around the world are evaluating the use of Cloud Computing for government applications. For instance, the US Government has started apps.gov to foster the adoption of Cloud Computing. Other governments have started or announced similar efforts.
 
The purpose of the OASIS Identity in the Clouds TC is to collect and harmonize definitions, terminologies and vocabulary of Cloud Computing.
 
The TC will collect use cases to help identify gaps in existing Identity Management standards. The uses cases will be used to identify gaps in current standards and investigate the need for profiles for achieving interoperability with in current standards. Additionally, the use cases will be used to perform risk and threat analyses, leading to suggestions for how to means to then and mitigate identified risks and the threats and vulnerabilities.
 
The TC will focus on collaborating with industry fora such as the Cloud Security Alliance and the ITU-T in the area of clouds security and identity management. Liaisons will be identified with other standards bodies and working groups on Cloud Computing.
 
 
Scope
The purpose of the TC is to harmonize definitions/terminologies/vocabulary of Identity in the context of Cloud Computing. The work will define use cases and profiles to identify gaps in existing Identity Management standards as they apply in the cloud.
 
1. The TC may identify existing definitions, terminologies and vocabulary of Identity in the context of Cloud Computing for harmonizing the definitions, terminologies and vocabulary as the TC determines.
 
2. The TC may define use cases for Identity in the Clouds.
 
3. The TC may define profiles of existing interoperability protocols and formats for usage of Identity in the Clouds, based on the identified use cases.  Profiles are subsets of specifications and combinations of such subsets.
 
4. The TC may identify gaps in existing Identity Management interoperability protocols and formats standards at OASIS and other standards bodies and utilize the OASIS liaison process for communicating the gaps.
 
5.  In all of its work, the TC should, to the extent feasible, prefer widely implementable, widely interoperable, modular standards, extensions, profiles and methods that permit use by a variety of participants.
 
6. The TC will build on and use existing standards and specifications when possible.
 
 
Out of Scope
1. Access Control, Levels of Assurance (LOA) and Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in the context of cloud computing.
2. APIs or Implementations
3. Creation of new protocols or formats.
 

List of Deliverables
1. A document calling out in detail the specific use cases of cloud computing that the TC plans to address in their work product. This document will be completed and approved by the TC by July 2010.
 
2. A set of profiles and gaps, as described in paragraphs #3 and #4 under 'Scope', to be approved as a Committee Specification by December 2010, and the remainder if any to be approved by Committee Specifications by [June 2011]. The TC may elect to create one or more of such deliverables in whatever combination it deems appropriate.
 
3. Optionally, such other deliverables (e.g., those listed in paragraphs 1-6 under 'Scope') as the TC may elect, until the later of June 2011 or such later date as the TC may elect to conclude.
 

IPR Policy:
Royalty Free on Limited Terms under the OASIS IPR Policy
 

Anticipated Audiences:
Enterprises interested in providing or using identity management capabilities in a cloud computing infrastructure.
 
 
Language:
English
 
 
(2) Non-normative information regarding the start-up of the TC, which includes:
 
(2)(a) Identification of similar or applicable work that is being done in other OASIS TCs or by other organizations, why there is a need for another effort in this area and how this proposed TC will be different, and what level of liaison will be pursued with these other organizations.
 
The proposed “Identity In The Clouds TC” will be incorporating several definitions, terminologies, vocabulary and standards from OASIS standards bodies as well as standards work done by non-OASIS organizations. The TC will use standards from several OASIS TCs and standards from non-OASIS organizations.  Liaison will be established by concurrent work items in the cited TCs' area of expertise.
 
(2)(b) The date, time, and location of the first meeting, whether it will be held in person or by telephone, and who will sponsor this first meeting. The first meeting of a TC shall occur no less than 30 days after the announcement of its formation in the case of a meeting held exclusively by telephone or other electronic means, and no less than 45 days after the announcement of its formation in the case of a meeting held face-to-face (whether or not a telephone bridge is also available).
 
The proposed “Identity In The Clouds TC” will hold the first official meeting on February 22, 2010 at 1pm ET by telephone and will use a free conference call service.
 
(2)(c) The projected on-going meeting schedule for the year following the formation of the TC, or until the projected date of the final deliverable, whichever comes first, and who will be expected to sponsor these meetings.
 
The TC will meet biweekly or as otherwise agreed upon by the members of the technical committee.
 
(2)(d) The names, electronic mail addresses, and membership affiliations of at least Minimum Membership who support this proposal and are committed to the Charter and projected meeting schedule.
 
Anil Saldhana, Anil.Saldhana@redhat.com   (Red Hat)
Mark Little, mark.little@jboss.com   (Red Hat)
Timothy Brown, timothy.brown@ca.com , (CA)
Jeff Broberg, Jeffrey.Broberg@ca.com , (CA)
Abbie Barbir, abarbir@live.ca , Individual
Michael McIntosh, mike.g.mcintosh@gmail.com, Individual
June Leung, junelsleung@gmail.com, Individual
 
(2)(e) The name of the Convener who must be an Eligible Person.
Abbie Barbir.
 
(2)(f) Statements of Support
The name, electronic mail address, membership affiliation, and statement of support for the proposed Charter from the Primary Representative
 
1.      Paul Lipton, CA, Paul.Lipton@ca.com
CA approves our participation as co-proposers for this TC.
 
2.      Mark Little, Red Hat mark.little@jboss.com
I approve of Red Hat's participation in this group and that it is very important for Cloud in general and Red Hat's activities in that area.
 
(2)(g) The name of the Member Section with which the TC intends to affiliate, if any.
Oasis IDTrust Member Section.
 
(2)(h) Optionally, a list of contributions of existing technical work that the proposers anticipate will be made to this TC.
None.
 
(2)(i) Optionally, a draft Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document
regarding the planned scope of the TC, for posting on the TC's website. 
To be provided at a later date.
 
(2)(j) Optionally, a proposed working title and acronym for the specification(s) to be developed by the TC.
To be provided at a later date.