Data centre HTML standard launched

Open standard DCML hopes to storm market

15 October 2003

An “HTML for the data centre” standard has been launched in the hope of making the concept of utility computing a reality.

The open-standard DCML (Data Centre Markup Language) has the backing of twenty-five big tech companies, led by EDS and Opsware, and hopes to become the de facto standard for sharing data centre information.

Based on XML, it will do for the data centre what HTML did for content and IP did for networking, claims the new organisation behind the standard, the non-profit DCML Organisation. Its aim is to “achieve interoperability and render proprietary approaches irrelevant by providing a systematic, vendor-neutral way to describe the data centre environment,” according to the organisation's website.

A laudable aim but one that will be difficult to realise - as made clear by the notable absence of IBM, HP, Sun and Veritas from the DCML supporting organisations, who each run their own data centre protocols.

The DCML Organisation argues that without a open and ubiquitous standard, the dream of utility computing - where companies are able to access and use applications and computing resources as and when they like and pay on a per-second basis - will not become a reality.

The standard's success will depend on whether the big boys can be persuaded - or forced - to agree with this statement.

As for the standard itself the DCML Organisation describes it as both a recipe and a blueprint. “Much as a culinary recipe provides both the list of ingredients and the instructions for successfully combining them, DCML provides both an inventory of data centre elements and the desired functional relationship between them,” it explains. “Just as an architectural blueprint established an easily understood, multi-dimensional plan for constructing or replicating a building, DCML can be used to provision or reproduce a complete data center infrastructure - with all of its component relationships, dependencies, configuration, operational policies and management processes.”

So, basically, a standard that enables everything to be linked together, making data centres faster, more flexible and cheaper, giving a solid foundation on which companies then have to compete on quality and price. Got to be a good thing, surely?

Well, there are two major stumbling blocks. One, the other big companies will be hard to persuade, thanks to the time and trouble they've put into their own systems, that such a move would reduce their immediate power in the market. The DCML Organisation confirmed that it is hoping customer demand will force their hand.

Secondly, it's all a bit woolly at the moment. The Organisation says it will put out a draft document of the new standard in December with the aim of pulling in all suggestions and releasing DCML-compliant software early next year.

So we can only watch, wait and see.

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