Organization Pushes Proposed Data-Center Standard To Boost Utility ComputingOrganization Pushes Proposed Data-Center Standard To Boost Utility Computing

Two dozen technology companies have formed an organization to push for a standard to reduce operating costs for data centers.

information Staff, Contributor

October 14, 2003

3 Min Read
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In the latest effort to make utility computing a reality, more than two dozen technology companies have formed an organization to push for a industry standard designed to reduce data-center operating costs and simplify communication between disparate software and hardware.

Led by EDS and Opsware, the new DCML Organization opened for business Tuesday. Other companies that have joined the group include Akamai Technologies, BEA Systems, BladeLogic, Computer Associates, and Marimba.

The proposed standard, the Data Center Markup Language, or DCML, is an XML-based language designed to describe hardware and software from multiple vendors used in a data center. The group promised that the language would take into account everything from Linux, Windows, and Unix servers to network and storage components.

Think of DCML as analogous to HTML, said Ben Horowitz, president and CEO of Opsware. "HTML is a common language for describing content on the Internet, and DCML provides a common language for describing the components of the data center," he said. "It allows those components to communicate with each other, and with the center's management software."

Information carried by DCML will be fed to data-center systems management applications so that the software can automatically conduct utility computing-style chores, such as re-provisioning servers to shift workload.

"DCML will make it way easier to run a data center," promised Horowitz, who also touted DCML's ability to cut costs. DCML-compliant systems will be less expensive to run, he said, because chores now done manually, such as consolidating servers and enforcing software policies, can be automated.

Another advantage of DCML, said Darrel Thomas, chief technologist at EDS and one of the co-authors of the language, is that it takes into account not only new technology introduced by an enterprise to implement utility computing, but also existing devices and software.

Under the utility computing concept, IT resources such as storage capacity or application server bandwidth is bought as it's needed, like electricity. Vendors marketing utility computing often push companies to invest in all-new systems and lock them into those from just one source. DCML doesn't do that, said Thomas. "DCML takes an agnostic approach," he said. "Existing [data-center] environments need to be accommodated, too."

Some sort of standard is necessary in the data center if utility computing is going to fly, said one analyst, but he's not sure DCML is the answer.

"Some ability to monitor and control systems from multiple vendors are important at the highest level of the data center," said Gordon Haff, an analyst with market-research firm Illuminata. "But in the near term to expect a Dell, an IBM, an HP system, to blend together is not realistic. Greater standards, greater interoperability are great goals, but it's a slow and incremental process."

Absent from the organization and the announcement of DCML were major vendors which have launched their own utility computing initiatives, such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems, each of which have their own idea of what utility computing is, and should be.

Executives at EDS and Opsware said that they expect these companies to eventually support DCML, even though they're not on board at the moment. "They'll react to user demand," said Horowitz.

An initial draft of the DCML specification is expected to be ready for public comment in December, with a final version sometime in 2004, said Thomas. It will be available to companies free of charge and without royalties, added Horowitz, who noted that, "This is truly an open standard. No one owns it, and no licenses will be required."

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