Breaking News - Operating Systems & Middleware:

OASIS Forms Technical Committees To Advance DCML

International standards consortium OASIS has formed four committees to continue work originated by the DCML Organization, which recently transitioned its development and operations to OASIS. The new OASIS DCML Framework Technical Committee, the OASIS DCML Server Technical Committee, the OASIS DCML Network Technical Committee, and the OASIS DCML Applications and Services Technical Committee will collaborate on a holistic set of standards for the automated management of the data center infrastructure.

"Today's complex IT environments are managed in silos of information and demand a data model and format to effectively exchange this information," explained Tim Howes of Opsware, chair of the OASIS DCML Framework Technical Committee. "Our goal is to enable the systems and people managing data centers to exchange crucial configuration, policy, and operating information in a reliable, standardized manner across all products, methods and topologies."

Members of the OASIS DCML Framework Technical Committee will define the overall approach, concepts, and structures fundamental to DCML's description and manipulation of data center elements and the policies governing their management. The group's work will serve as the foundation for other OASIS DCML committees, which will develop sub-specifications to represent specific types of information.

The OASIS DCML Applications and Services Technical Committee will define extensions to represent abstract application and services architectures and specific products. "We will create a uniform, heterogeneous, and comprehensive data model and interchange format to allow applications, application components such as Web services, and IT services of all types to be referenced and managed," said J. Darrel Thomas of EDS, chair of the OASIS DCML Applications and Services Technical Committee.

The OASIS DCML Network Technical Committee will design a data model and XML-based format for the exchange of information about networking elements in the data center. "Our focus will be on the specifics of network equipment and technology, but our scope is large, covering all types of networking components, from simple switching and routing elements to nodes that provide advanced processing at all layers of the protocol stack," explained Dave Roberts of Inkra Networks, chair of the OASIS DCML Network Technical Committee.

The OASIS DCML Server Technical Committee will facilitate the representation and management of information about logical or physical compute resource in the data center. "This committee supports the larger DCML goals of facilitating the interchange of information between tools and devices, improving the data center environment, enabling increased automation, and leading the way for machine processing of descriptive and policy information," stated Moshe Bar of Qlusters, chair of the OASIS DCML Server Technical Committee.

Members of the OASIS DCML Technical Committees include representatives of BEA Systems, BMC Software, Computer Associates, Electronic Data Systems, Inkra Networks, Opsware, Tibco and others. Participation remains open to all organizations and individuals. The first meeting of the new committees will be held on Nov. 15.