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Intercloud and interoperability 5

3.2.2 cloud interoperability testing: Verifying functions and interaction that realize the cloud
interoperability.

4 Abbreviations and acronyms
This Recommendation uses the following abbreviations and acronyms:

BSS Business Support Systems
CCRA Cloud Computing Reference Architecture
CSC Cloud Service Customer

CSP Cloud Service Provider
IaaS Infrastructure as a Service

ICT Information and Communication Technology
IT Information Technology
OSS Operational Support Systems

PaaS Platform as a Service
QoS Quality of Service
SaaS Software as a Service

SLA Service-Level-Agreement
VM Virtual Machine

5 Overview of cloud computing interoperability testing
Interoperability in the context of cloud computing includes the ability of a cloud service customer to interact
with a cloud service and exchange information according to a prescribed method and obtain predictable
results. Typically, interoperability implies that the cloud service operates according to an agreed
specification, one that is possibly standardized. The cloud service customer should be able to use widely
available ICT facilities in-house when interacting with the cloud services, avoiding the need to use proprietary
or highly specialized software. The interoperability of cloud services can be categorized by the management
and functional interfaces of the cloud services. Many existing IT standards contribute to the interoperability
between cloud consumer applications and cloud services, and between cloud services themselves. There are
standardization efforts that are specifically initiated to address the interoperability issues in the cloud system.
Interoperability also includes the ability for one cloud service to work with other cloud services, either
through an inter-cloud provider relationship, or where a cloud service customer uses different multiple cloud
services in some form of composition to achieve its business goals.

Interoperability stretches beyond the cloud services themselves and also includes the interaction of the cloud
service customer with the cloud service management facilities of the cloud service provider. Ideally, the cloud
service customer should have a consistent and interoperable interface to the cloud service management
functionality and be able to interact with two or more cloud service providers without needing to deal with
each provider in a specialized way.

The main purpose of interoperability testing is to evaluate the interaction between cloud service customer
and cloud service provider to obtain predictable results, collaboration among different cloud services, and
consistency and interoperability of management interface across different services.
A cloud capabilities type is a classification of the functionality provided by a cloud service to the cloud service
customer, based on the resources used. There are three different cloud capabilities types [ITU-T Y.3500]:
infrastructure capabilities type, platform capabilities type, and application capabilities type, which are
different because they follow the principle of separation of concerns, i.e., they have minimal functionality
overlap between each other. The interoperability testing in different cloud capabilities type is different; there
are three major interoperability testing scenarios as follows:

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