Overview
ISO/IEC TS 23167:2020 - Information technology - Cloud computing - Common technologies and techniques is a Technical Specification that describes a set of widely used technologies and techniques that support modern cloud computing. It provides a structured, vendor-neutral description of components and practices - from virtualization and containers to serverless, microservices, automation, PaaS, storage services, security, scalability and networking - to help architects, developers and operators understand and apply these technologies consistently.
Key topics and technical considerations
The specification documents practical technology areas and associated considerations rather than prescriptive protocols. Major topics covered include:
- Virtual machines and hypervisors - system virtualization concepts, Type I/II hypervisors, VM image formats and metadata.
- Containers and container management systems (CMSs) - container runtime/daemon behavior, image layering, registries, and orchestration capabilities.
- Serverless computing (FaaS) - function lifecycle, frameworks, and relationships with containers and microservices.
- Microservices architecture - design characteristics, multi-layered architectures, service mesh, circuit breakers and API gateways.
- Automation - automation of the development lifecycle and tooling for CI/CD and operations.
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - PaaS system characteristics and component architectures.
- Data storage as a service (DSaaS) - capabilities, features and notable additional capabilities for cloud storage services.
- Networking and scalability - cloud access, intra-cloud networking, VPNs, elasticity, load balancing and database scaling approaches.
- Security - firewalls, endpoint protection, identity and access management (IAM), data encryption and key management applied to the above technologies.
Practical applications
ISO/IEC TS 23167:2020 is useful for:
- Cloud architects and solution designers evaluating cloud patterns (VMs, containers, serverless, microservices).
- DevOps and SRE teams defining automation, CI/CD and scaling strategies.
- Security teams implementing cloud-focused controls (IAM, encryption, key management).
- Procurement and compliance teams comparing vendor offerings with standard terminology and capabilities.
- Educators and trainers teaching cloud computing fundamentals with an industry standard reference.
The document helps ensure consistent terminology, clarify technology trade‑offs, and support interoperable design and procurement decisions.
Related standards
- ISO/IEC 17788 - Cloud computing - Vocabulary (foundational conceptual definitions)
- ISO/IEC 17789 - Cloud computing - Reference architecture
- Prepared by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 38 (Cloud Computing and Distributed Platforms)
Keywords: ISO/IEC TS 23167:2020, cloud computing, virtual machines, hypervisors, containers, serverless, microservices, PaaS, cloud security, cloud scalability, container management systems.