E-business standards group OASIS approved Web Services Distributed Management
(WSDM) as a standard, eliminating a key barrier for the broader adoption of
Web services.
Created by IBM, HP, Computer Associates, BMC Software, WSDM lets
programmers write management applications using Web services
interface. Developers will use the document to write an integration layer
between managers and the various protocols used in software.
WSDM consists of two specifications, Management Using Web Services (MUWS)
and Management Of Web Services (MOWS), OASIS said in a statement.
MUWS specifies how programmers may represent the manageability
interfaces of resources as Web services, defining resource identity, metrics
and configuration. This spec also provides a management event format for
better correlation.
MOWS defines how to manage Web services and how to access them using
MUWS, ensuring that Web services applications interoperate across
enterprises.
The passage of WSDM is important because it marks the first step in defining
the Web services stack for management, according to Winston Bumpus of Dell,
co-chair of the OASIS WSDM Technical Committee, launched
two years ago.
Management issues aren’t endemic to Web services software. The industry has
long struggled to corral applications or infrastructure from disparate
vendors and get them to work seamlessly together.
But because Web services are expected by analysts and vendors to be a
multi-billion-dollar market once entities agree on standards, the passage of
WSDM is something of a landmark achievement for OASIS members. WSDM could
remove an obstacle in the road to widespread Web services support.
Companies such as CA have already leveraged the standard, offering
CA WSDM to help customers manage services in a service-oriented architecture
Other Web services enablers, such as DataPower, have used early versions of
WSDM since 2003. HP submitted its Web Services Management Framework for WSDM in July 2003.
March is shaping up to be a significant month for the release of Web
services standards, as OASIS last Wednesday signed off on XACML for security, another dilemma standards bodies are trying
to work through.
