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.

"Today's complex IT environments are managed in silos of information and demand a data model and format to effectively exchange this information," explained Dr. Tim Howes of Opsware, chair of the OASIS DCML Framework Technical Committee.

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.

"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," added Howes.

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 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.

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 15 November 2004.

The OASIS DCML Member Section (www.dcml.org) is an open coalition of vendors and users working to advance utility computing through the development and adoption of the Data Center Markup Language (DCML).