Systems/Enterprise:
THE SA FORUM RELEASES APPLICATION
INTERFACE SPECIFICATION
The Service Availability Forum, an industry coalition of premier
communications and computing companies, announced the release of the
Application Interface Specification (AIS).
This is the SA Forum's second open interface specification enabling
carrier-
grade platforms, middleware and applications to deliver the critical elements
needed for High Availability (HA) services.
"The release of the Application Interface Specification is the next
critical
step for the delivery of cost-effective, carrier-grade infrastructure
solutions," said Timo Jokiaho, president of the Service Availability Forum.
"Delivery of this application-level high availability interface specification,
in conjunction with the SA Forums' Hardware Platform Interface (HPI) released
in October of 2002, enables Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and middleware
vendors to develop service applications and availability management middleware
solutions within an open, high availability framework."
Network Equipment Providers (NEPs), Telecom Equipment Manufacturers (TEMs)
and
Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are evolving from a proprietary to an
open, standards-based, "COTS (Commercial Off-the-Shelf)" development
environment in an effort to lower costs and reduce development time. Aimed at
companies working to address the transition from proprietary development to
standards-based, modular development, the SA Forum enables software and
hardware vendors to join NEPs and TEMs in the definition and development of
these specifications. The Forum's specifications also represent an opportunity
for companies to focus increased resources on innovation and efforts to
differentiate products.
This Application Interface Specification standardizes the interface between
SA
Forum compliant High Availability (HA) middleware and customer applications.
This Application Interface Specification specifies the key standards for use
in implementing Service Availability High Available middleware and service
applications -- including an availability management framework, checkpointing,
event notification, messaging, cluster membership, and distributed
locking.
"As a founding member of the SA Forum, IBM is participating in the
development
of the open standards that will lead to accelerated time-to- market, lower
costs, and innovation in carrier grade solutions," said Mark Tempelmeyer, VP,
Industry Software Development, IBM. "We are vitally interested in bringing the
benefits of open standards to the market."
A significant cost in the development of proprietary carrier-grade
solutions
is dedicated to developing interfaces to interoperate with a variety of
redundant subsystems and applications. The communications industry has taken
steps to reduce these costs and resources through the development of carrier-
grade commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions through the SA Forum and with
other industry initiatives such as the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers
Group (PICMG) and and the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL). The SA Forum has
worked closely with PICMG and OSDL to advance this industry effort to promote
the adoption of standards- based network equipment components.
"The SA Forum application interface specification is an important step
toward
enabling open solutions for communications applications," said Timothy D.
Witham, Lab Director, OSDL. "The specification combined with the Linux
enhancements defined by OSDL's Carrier Grade Linux Working Group will result
in cost-effective solutions for carrier grade applications."
SA Forum Application Interface Specification Availability
The Application Interface Specification is available on April 14, 2003, and
can be downloaded at
www.saforum.org/specification.
Interested parties
may view, download and implement all released SA Forum specifications simply
by signing a free "Specification License." Initially, a "Self-Certification
Program with Disclosure" will be utilized to drive effective implementation of
the specifications.
The SA Forum HPI, delivered last October, specifies an interface between
the
operating system/hardware platform and the HA middleware, and is designed to
modularize the HA hardware and software within the telecom equipment stack.
Since its release, SA Forum members currently adopting the SA Forum Hardware
Platform Interface include Force Computers, Fujitsu Siemens, GoAhead Software,
IBM, Intel, Mission Critical Linux, Motorola, Nokia, RadiSys, Eternal Systems,
Solid Information Technology and UXComm.
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