A system for providing a distributed standards registry for a federated computing environment, comprising: a plurality of distributed standards registry participants that are collectively configured to provide control logic for the distributed standards registry using a consensus voting mechanism to make control decisions; a synchronized copy of a distributed ontology model library maintained on the plurality of distributed standards registry participants and storing a plurality of ontology models, each ontology model containing ontological data that describes federation services based on relationships between components of the federated computing environment; and a distributed federation broker registry maintained across the plurality of distributed standards registry participants and storing registration information for a plurality of federation brokers, each federation broker providing brokerage services related to at least one federation service described by the plurality of ontology models, wherein a first distributed standards registry participant of the plurality of distributed standards registry participants further comprises: a discovery processor operable to receive, from a potential federation participant, a federation participant query that includes semantic query data, the discovery processor further operable to identify at least one ontology model from the plurality of ontology models based on processing the semantic query data included in the federation participant query, and return any identified ontology model to the potential federation participant; a registry processor operable to receive, from a potential federation broker, a registration request to register the federation broker as providing brokerage services related to a federation service described by one of the plurality of ontology models, the registry processor further operable to store registration information for the federation broker on the federation broker registry, the registry processor further operable to validate the federation broker by verifying a security certificate of the federation broker and fulfilling the registration request of the federation broker upon validation of the federation broker. a plurality of distributed standards registry participants that are collectively configured to provide control logic for the distributed standards registry using a consensus voting mechanism to make control decisions; a synchronized copy of a distributed ontology model library maintained on the plurality of distributed standards registry participants and storing a plurality of ontology models, each ontology model containing ontological data that describes federation services based on relationships between components of the federated computing environment; and a distributed federation broker registry maintained across the plurality of distributed standards registry participants and storing registration information for a plurality of federation brokers, each federation broker providing brokerage services related to at least one federation service described by the plurality of ontology models, wherein a first distributed standards registry participant of the plurality of distributed standards registry participants further comprises: a discovery processor operable to receive, from a potential federation participant, a federation participant query that includes semantic query data, the discovery processor further operable to identify at least one ontology model from the plurality of ontology models based on processing the semantic query data included in the federation participant query, and return any identified ontology model to the potential federation participant; a registry processor operable to receive, from a potential federation broker, a registration request to register the federation broker as providing brokerage services related to a federation service described by one of the plurality of ontology models, the registry processor further operable to store registration information for the federation broker on the federation broker registry, the registry processor further operable to validate the federation broker by verifying a security certificate of the federation broker and fulfilling the registration request of the federation broker upon validation of the federation broker. a discovery processor operable to receive, from a potential federation participant, a federation participant query that includes semantic query data, the discovery processor further operable to identify at least one ontology model from the plurality of ontology models based on processing the semantic query data included in the federation participant query, and return any identified ontology model to the potential federation participant; a registry processor operable to receive, from a potential federation broker, a registration request to register the federation broker as providing brokerage services related to a federation service described by one of the plurality of ontology models, the registry processor further operable to store registration information for the federation broker on the federation broker registry, the registry processor further operable to validate the federation broker by verifying a security certificate of the federation broker and fulfilling the registration request of the federation broker upon validation of the federation broker.