When I go to the gas station these days, I am never certain how much I am going to be charged per gallon; however,  I am always certain that I won't be cheated on the volume. If the pump reads four gallons, I never question whether I actually got four gallons. Am I too trusting? Or naïve? While I never have actually gone to the office in any high rise I have visited to view the elevator certification on file, I have checked calibration certification on the side of the pump at the gas station.

In Information Technology, there are on-going debates on the use and need for standards. Don't we all need exact base units like hertz (Hz), radian (rad) or newton (N)? While at one point, basis for the meter was the distance from the equator to the North Pole through Paris, now it is the distance of light traveled in 1/299,792,458 of a second. While the US and UK do not always use the set of seven base units defined by the International System of Units (SI), we do rely on other esoteric units such as the avoirdupois pound and related pound-force measures. Shouldn't there also be ubiquitous standards without question in IT? If cloud computing is indeed the new paradigm, wouldn't it be really nice if there was a standard definition for cloud? But wait....there is: the NIST definition SP 800-145. But who is NIST and why do they get to define cloud? For us citizens of the United States of America, NIST is our National Institute for Standards and Technology.

NIST was founded in 1901 as the nation's first federal physical science research laboratory. NIST has made solid contributions to American science in all areas including DNA diagnostic "chips," smoke detectors, atomic clocks, and  X-ray standards for mammography. NIST's weights and measures services provide the basis for the fairness and efficiency of sales. Eighty percent of global merchandise trade is influenced by testing and other measurement-related activities, and US companies depend on NIST for the regulation and standardization of weights and measures.  When I go to the store I always come back with same amount of milk in a plastic jug, thanks to NIST. And when I make instant mashed potatoes, I am able to follow the recipe, again thanks to NIST.

The other day in a meeting I was told by industry experts that there was no definition of the cloud. Really? When pressed I was told that there were definitions, but none they liked. This sounds like another example of "not invented here."

So what exactly is the problem with the NIST SP 800-145 definition for cloud? I don't go to the 7-11 and argue with the clerk that I don't want there to be 16 oz. in a pound of butter. And while I may wish my bartender would put a little more whisky in my glass, I certainly wouldn't argue with him about how much two ounces is.  As a carpenter, I counted on the fact that my tape measure was the same as my co-worker, though on more than one occasion I heard someone yell at me, "Dude, you cut the board too short, is there something wrong with your tape measure?"

So please, let's stop arguing about a definition of cloud. It's NIST.