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Microsoft (News - Alert) Corp. has joined The Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) as a contributor, the organization announced. The company's work in cloud services and data center solution delivery areas through the Windows Azure cloud platform is expected to add a valuable perspective to the ODCA, and contribute to its overall mission.

The ODCA consists of hundreds of organizations throughout the world, with the goal of working collaboratively to shape the future of the enterprise-ready cloud through industry standard solutions.

Acting as a voice for enterprise IT, the ODCA aims to articulate the various requirements for transforming enterprise IT landscape.

Areas of interest include the open and interoperable delivery of computing Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), cloud security, and best practices for adopting big data analytics.

The ODCA recently published a series of Master Usage Model documents focused on the requirements for compute IaaS, which the organization considers a primary focus of the enterprise adoption of cloud solutions in 2013.

The ODCA is an independent IT consortium of industry leaders with the goal of providing a unified customer vision for long-term data center requirements. The group is led by a 12-member steering committee. Participants include BMW, China Unicom, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International Inc., Terremark, Disney Technology Solutions (News - Alert) and Services and UBS.

"The ODCA brings together leaders from across industries to work together towards a vision of open, industry standard cloud solution delivery," said Mario Mueller, BMW's vice president of IT infrastructure and chair of the Alliance. "In order to truly accelerate availability of cloud services, enterprise IT needs to work closely with cloud service and solution providers. Microsoft's participation is a valuable addition to the organization's mission, and we heartily welcome their membership."

"In line with Windows Azure's commitment to openness and interoperability, we are pleased to join ODCA and work with industry leadership on standards for the cloud," said Bill Hilf, general manager, Windows Azure. "We are dedicated to serving the industry and customers by providing an open, reliable and global approach to the cloud, and we look forward to contributing to the ODCA's mission."