Some of the biggest names in tech have formed the Modern Computing Alliance, with the goal of transforming the cloud and its tools.

Cloud computing has become one of the biggest, most important trends in modern computing. Already well under way, the migration to cloud computing went into overdrive as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies around the world are relying on cloud computing to manage remote employees, stay productive and adapt to a new reality.

Unfortunately, migrating to the cloud is not always an easy task, especially for companies with decades of investment in legacy systems. The Modern Computing Alliance is aimed at “aligning standards and technologies to provide companies with the choice of high-performance, cloud-first computing solutions from the vendor of their choice who provide modern solutions for the modern era of business.”

Google’s John Solomon, VP Chrome OS, outlined the alliance’s vision in a blog post:

To drive ‘silicon-to-cloud’ innovation for the benefit of enterprise customers—fueling a differentiated modern computing platform and providing additional choice for integrated business solutions.

Solomon emphasized that any strong alliance needs a strong diversity of members, to help bring unique perspectives to the table. The Modern Computing Alliance certainly meets that criteria with its founding members: Box, Citrix, Dell, Google, Imprivata, Intel, Okta, RingCentral, Slack, VMWare and Zoom.

The Modern Computing Alliance members are specifically focused on four key areas:

• Performance
• Security and Identity
• Remote, Collaboration and Productivity
• Healthcare

“The shared goal among the Modern Computing Alliance members is to fuel innovation in these key areas and provide customers with preferred choices without the tradeoffs they may face with a single vendor,” writes VMware’s Kenny Takahashi.

“Customers will play an integral role in the Modern Computing Alliance through the Modern Computing IT Council, which will provide a forum for IT champions to make themselves heard. Customer IT Council participants will have exclusive lines of communication with Modern Computing Alliance members and help define the future of computing through research, advisory workshops, roadmap inputs, and solution testing.”

The Modern Computing Alliance looks like a promising step in the right direction toward making cloud computing even easier.