Looking back at the accomplishments of the DMTF over the past year, the leadership and membership of the organization have achieved great milestones through their open, collaborative work. It has been a productive year, the momentum of which is carrying us towards important accomplishments in 2015.

This year saw the creation of the Network Management Initiative (NETMAN) and the Scalable Platforms Management Forum (SPMF), each an illustration of how the DMTF continues to identify the needs of the industry and work towards delivering valuable solutions. Other areas of marked progress include new work based on the recently published use cases of the Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface (CIMI); the whitepaper released by the Open Software Defined Data Center (OSDDC) Incubator; the roadmap published by the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) working group to include further cloud-based features and deliverables; and the release of the Cloud Auditing Data Federation’s (CADF) Data Format and Interface Definitions 1.0, a significant stride forward for the group.

On the internal platform front, the System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) working group is planning to release its 3.0 specification, while the Platform Management Components Intercommunication (PMCI) working group is expected to release three deliverables soon. On the IT infrastructure side, WS-Management (WS-MAN), Systems Management Architecture for Server Hardware (SMASH), and Desktop and Mobile Architecture for System Hardware (DASH) each released significant updates, and the Server Desktop Mobile Platforms (SDMP) working group published its Physical Platform View Profile.

The Common Information Model (CIM) – the standard where DMTF’s modeling began – continues to move forward with updates to the CIM v2 specification and a release in the near future of CIM Schema version 2.43. Yes, that’s 42 releases of CIM, not counting errata releases!

Another prominent milestone was the adoption of a structural and procedural reorganization to benefit the working group and committee reporting structures (DSP4014 2.0). This has allowed us to increase our efficiencies and overall agility while refreshing our processes to better align our priorities, such as developing open source simultaneously with open standards, with the needs of our members and the industry. DMTF process overhead is now the lowest of any recognized standards body, second to none.

As we continue our efforts to simplify the manageability of network-accessible technologies, the hard work and leadership of our members remains invaluable. If you are not yet a member, we invite you to join the steady stream of new companies and alliance partners who have invested in DMTF membership. Learn more about how to get on board with us in 2015 at dmtf.org/join. It is through this collective effort that we will continue to set the gold standard for management interoperability.

I invite you to contact me at president@dmtf.org with your thoughts, ideas and questions. We look forward to the exciting work on the horizon in 2015 and hope to get your input at whatever level you can participate. On behalf of the leadership of the DMTF, we wish you the very best in the New Year!

2014 has marked exceptional progress for the DMTF with experiences and achievements that position us for yet another year of groundbreaking work as we continue to create and drive the international adoption of interoperable management standards.  We welcome the fresh perspective of a New Year and are excited to march towards the goals set by the DMTF leadership and working groups.

The implementation of DMTF’s reorganization has optimized procedures for swift publication.  We will continue to foster even greater transparency, with groups publishing Works In Progress early and often so our progress can be better followed; allowing more opportunities for feedback and ultimately making our standards that much more relevant to the demands of the end user and industry.

Key tenants of our organization include identifying and responding to new areas of need. The DMTF remains an ideal forum for industry leading companies to come together in a safe, non-competitive environment to collaborate on the creation of interoperable management standards. Expect that the DMTF will continue to evolve and refine itself as the gold standard and desired consortium to create these standards.

In the coming year, look forward to ongoing signs of DMTF’s work with Open Source. To support this effort, I am calling on working groups and forums to think of alternatives – beyond specifications – that can help with adoption and usage of DMTF standards. Sample client code, helper libraries, conformance tests and infrastructure components are a few examples of the many possibilities.

Finally, with our continued initiatives to deepen DMTF’s presence around the globe and to foster the international communities ripe for involvement, our Regional Chapter Committee (RCC) is looking to expand its reach to new locales. As more DMTF standards gain international recognition, it is important to communicate these milestones and encourage participation with relevant audiences. In 2015, the RCC has plans to make headway in identifying and establishing chapters of the DMTF in areas that are ready to support our global standardization efforts.

The DMTF values its members for their contributions and vision, and we thank you for your work. As an open and transparent organization, you are encouraged to contact us with any questions, concerns or ideas you may have. Feel free to personally connect with me at chair@dmtf.org. Have a safe and happy New Year!

DMTF announced, last month, the appointment of Selva Subbiah to the role of Vice President of Finance. Selva is a Senior Manager of Software Engineering at Dell, responsible for managing a team of system management engineers and overseeing summer internship recruiting for the organization. As a 17-year veteran of the computer software industry, with a primary focus on systems management, he has held various leadership roles in startup, mid-size and large enterprise companies.

Selva holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Madurai Kamaraj University (India) and is currently pursuing an MBA at Cornell University. He also sits on the Cornell Career Advisory Board and is responsible for Corporate Outreach. Please join us in welcoming Selva to the DMTF Board of Directors.