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Industry Leaders Unite to Define Common Language for IT Resource Description

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

Leading technology companies, including BEA Systems, BMC Software, Cisco Systems, Dell, EMC Corp., HP, IBM Corp., Intel Corporation, Microsoft Corp., and Sun Microsystems, have collaborated to develop a common language for describing computer networks, applications, servers, and other IT resources. This effort aims to simplify IT management in multivendor environments by enabling a consistent way to express information about IT resources and services in XML (Extensible Markup Language). The newly proposed specification, known as Service Modeling Language (SML), has the potential to reduce costs and system complexity for customers by providing a hierarchy of IT resource models from reusable building blocks.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Service Modeling Language (SML) is a new specification aimed at providing a common language for describing IT resources and services in XML, enabling consistent management across diverse tools and applications.
  • SML has two unique properties: support for rich constraints and alignment with XML message exchange architectures, making it well-suited for modeling IT resources and services.
  • The SML specification is an open industry standard, allowing developers to build modeling information for applications, devices, and services across all stages of the application or service life cycle.
  • The standard language will provide simplicity, integration, and compatibility throughout the IT environment, reducing costs and system complexity.
  • The participating companies aim to submit the SML specification to an industry standards organization later this year.
  • A library of core models for generic resources, such as network elements, operating systems, storage devices, and desktops, will be developed to describe the relationship between components in a specific IT service.
  • Microsoft will implement SML in its products, including Windows, System Center, and Visual Studio, as part of its Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI).
  • Sun Microsystems plans to use SML technology within its product portfolio after it is submitted to an industry standards body.

Statistics:

  • The participating companies represent over 90% of the global information technology market share.
  • SML aims to reduce IT management costs by simplifying the process of managing complex IT environments.
  • The standard library of core models will enable vendors to establish the generic nature of and relationship between components of a specific IT service, reducing the need for custom descriptions.
  • SML has the potential to improve IT agility by allowing businesses to adapt their IT infrastructure in response to changing needs.

Sources:

  • BEA Systems press release, July 31, /PRNewswire-FirstCall/
  • Microsoft Corp. press release, July 31,
  • Cisco Systems Inc. press release, July 31,
  • Dell Inc. press release, July 31,
  • EMC Corp. press release, July 31,
  • HP press release, July 31,
  • IBM Corp. press release, July 31,
  • Intel Corporation press release, July 31,
  • Sun Microsystems Inc. press release, July 31,
  • Rapid Response Team of Waggener Edstrom Worldwide press release, July 31,

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