The industry body set up to champion new technologies for carrier ethernet – the MEF – and the newly formed CloudEthernetForum (CEF) have created a new Open Cloud Project which will offer a real-life test environment for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), software-defined networking (SDN) and Carrier Ethernet applications.

As part of the project a new proof-of-concept test laboratory has been established in Silicon Valley which as well as looking at individual technologies will also work on the iterative development of the CEF’s CloudE 1.0 open cloud environment framework, an initiative released today.

CloudE 1.0 is the CEF’s first work on new cloud standards for Ethernet, covering virtualization, automation, security, programmability and analytics.

The CEF formed last year with key members such as Equinix and Tata Communications to overcome challenges of transporting data between cloud data centers and used Interop at Las Vegas today to announce it is making headway on its standards initiatives.

The new Open Cloud Project lab will also provide resources for benchmark testing and future compliance with a key focus on traffic load balancing, application performance management and cloud security taking first priority.

MEF president Nan Chen said initial work carried out by project members will lay a foundation for interworking cloud environments and best practice development for service providers using cloud as a delivery platform.

“Network security and application performance management are two critical areas for future work,” Chen said.

“The Open Project is intended to create an open test process for NFV, SDN and Carrier Ethernet applications.”

The CEF will lead the project but it will be run in close affiliation with the MEF, with involvement from members of each group which includes leading equipment vendors, telcos, cable operators and cloud software vendors.

IDC said it expects by 2017 global spending on public cloud will exceed US$100bn.

“[This is] Five times that of the IT industry as a whole,” according to IDC analyst and VP of network infrastructure Rohit Mehra.

“It is important we look at cloud interoperability as a key goal across the spectrum of vendors and cloud service providers that will participate in the growth.”

The CEF is looking closely at reference architectures for cloud interoperability, and later this year it said it plans to announce the initial criteria for its CloudE 1.0 framework for standardized, open and interoperable cloud.