Deutsche Borse to open Cloud Exchange, treat computing as a commodity

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Bitcoin fans are familiar with using cloud computing to generate a commodity -- but what would happen if cloud computing was the commodity? The Deutsche Börse should find out when it opens its newly-unveiled Cloud Exchange in the first quarter of 2014. The independent market will let organizations buy remote computing and storage in respective 8GB and 1TB blocks, with traders agreeing on when and where the number crunching takes place. Theoretically, this creates a neutral, competitive space for exchanging server power: buyers can easily spot the best value, while sellers can efficiently offload their unused cycles. Whether or not the Cloud Exchange works that way in practice, we're just hoping that it isn't as volatile as an old-fashioned stock exchange.
[Image credit: Dontworry, Wikipedia]

Deutsche Börse launches marketplace for trading outsourced storage and computing capacity
World's first neutral trading venue for "cloud computing"/ Trading to commence beginning of 2014/ Standardised trading for cloud computing resources/ Clients have free choice of providers
2. July 2013
Deutsche Börse: Deutsche Börse today announced that it will launch a trading venue for outsourced storage and computing capacity – so called "cloud computing" resources – in the beginning of 2014: Deutsche Börse Cloud Exchange AG is a new joint venture formed together with Berlin-based Zimory GmbH to create the first neutral, secure and transparent trading venue for "cloud computing" resources.
The primary users for the new trading venue will be companies, public sector agencies and also organisations such as research institutes that need additional storage and computing resources, or have excess capacity that they want to offer on the market.
"With its great expertise in operating markets, Deutsche Börse is making it possible for the first time to standardise and trade fully electronically IT capacity in the same way as securities, energy and commodities," said Michael Osterloh, Member of the Board of Deutsche Börse Cloud Exchange.
As the first international, vendor-neutral marketplace of this type, Deutsche Börse Cloud Exchange will set and monitor standards regarding the product offering, admission procedure, changes of provider and guaranteed purchased capacity. Clients will be able to choose capacity providers freely, as well as select the jurisdiction that will apply to the outsourced data. The product offering will initially include outsourced storage capacity and computing power.
Product standards and technical provision will be developed in close cooperation with potential marketplace participants and related parties. These parties include representatives from the traditional IT environment, national and international SMEs, and large corporations from a wide range of industries, such as CloudSigma, Devoteam, Equinix, Host Europe, Leibniz- Rechenzentrum, PROFI AG, T-Systems and TÜV-Rheinland.
„The cloud marketplace of Deutsche Börse offers companies a further choice to purchase top secure and tested cloud-services from T-Systems. Due to the high level of standardization this will all be done with great speed and efficiency and with up-to-date prices", said Frank Strecker, responsible for the cloud business of T-Systems.
Founded in May 2013, Deutsche Börse Cloud Exchange AG is a joint venture of Deutsche Börse and Zimory, a Berlin-based specialist in cloud management that ensures that the users connected to the marketplace have easy access to the cloud capacity they have purchased.