Storage firm EMC has joined the Daoli Trusted Infrastructure Project which conducts research into "trust and assurance" in cloud computing environments.

The team's research will focus on cloud computing, trusted computing and virtualisation.

The issue of trust in cloud computing environments is becoming important as enterprises put applications, data and customer information in computing environments outside their local control.

Splitting information between in-house and external data centres exposes virtualised computers, networks and storage platforms to increased security risks, according to EMC.

The research will explore a variety of techniques that could be applied to secure the underlying physical location as well as broadly shared resources.

"The team is exploring the convergence of several key technologies including cloud computing, trusted computing and virtualisation," said Burt Kaliski, director of EMC's Innovation Network.

"It will look at how they might be applied to provide high-assurance software environments inside and outside the enterprise.

"The Daoli Project will help us understand what our customers are likely to encounter in the future, and we look forward to sharing the knowledge this research will generate."

Participants will share findings with researchers worldwide by way of a wiki hosted by Tsinghua University in Beijing.

"We appreciate the dedication to openness of the Daoli research findings and believe the benefits will span the entire research community from industry leaders to academia," said Professor Zheng Weimin of Tsinghua University.

The goal of the project is to generate a knowledge base of best practices and answers to questions about trusted information infrastructures in cloud computing environments.

Details of the research are expected to be discussed at the third annual Asia-Pacific Trusted Infrastructure Technologies Conference in China in October.