Meet the Open Cloud Manifesto

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Microsoft Declines to Endorse Manifesto

Industry politics could get in the way of progress, however. About half of the 70 tech companies to which IBM circulated the manifesto endorsed it, including AT&T (T), EMC (EMC), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Sun Microsystems (JAVA), and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

But others did not. Microsoft was among them. Steven Martin, a senior director at Microsoft, says the company got the document on Mar. 22 and was given a deadline of 48 hours to sign on—with no opportunity to suggest changes. In some cases, he says, language in the manifesto was so general that it would be nearly impossible to object to. But, in other cases, the practical implications were unclear. "Our premise is that standards should not only be open, but there should also be an open dialogue about them," he says.

Bruce Francis, vice-president for corporate strategy at Salesforce.com, says he agrees with the goal of achieving interoperability in cloud computing, but Salesforce.com didn't sign because it feels it's already working hard on the goal and would rather be judged by its actions. "We look forward to working with the signatories and other companies and keeping the cloud open and robust for the enterprise," he says.

Hope for Collaboration on Open Standards

IBM's Kloeckner says the manifesto was intended to be just a broad agreement on principles. He expects it to lead to a wide-open collaboration involving all interested parties, including customers. "It's in all of our interests to work together to build an open ecosystem," he says.

IBM and Microsoft have cooperated closely on several technology standards-setting efforts, including those concerning basic Internet technologies. But, occasionally, they clash. In a feud that dragged on for years, the two giants failed to agree on a global standard for interoperability of text documents. The computing world would benefit if the open cloud effort turns out differently.

Hamm is a senior writer for BusinessWeek in New York and author of the Globespotting blog.