Data Center Standard Proposed To Boost Utility Computing

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October 14, 2003 (11:51 AM EDT)

Data Center Standard Proposed To Boost Utility Computing

In the latest effort to make utility computing a reality, more than two dozen technology companies formed Tuesday an organization to push for a industry standard that would reduce data center operational costs and simplify communication between disparate software and hardware.

Lead by EDS and Opsware, the new organization -- called the DCML Organization-- opened for business Tuesday. Other firms which have joined the group include BEA Systems, Computer Associates, BladeLogic, Marimba, and Akamai Technologies.

The proposed standard -- DCML, or Data Center Markup Language -- 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, the president and CEO of Opsware, one of companies behind the proposed standard. "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. 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 -- like that sold by Opsware -- 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 or enforcing software policies -- can be automated.

Another advantage of DCML, said Darrel Thomas, Darrel Thomas, the chief technologist for 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, said Thomas, doesn't.

"DCML takes an agnostic approach," Thomas 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 wasn't' sure if DCML was 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, 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, as DCML-compliant products debut and gain a foothold in the data center.

An initial draft of the DCML specification is expected to be ready in December for public comment, with a final version sometime in 2004, said Thomas.

DCML will be available to companies free of charge and without royalties, added Horowitz. "This is truly an open standard. No one owns it, and no licenses will be required."

Horowitz said his company would include the preliminary spec in its Opsware IT automation software in early 2004, while EDS will follow by rolling out DCML within its own data centers that it uses to host enterprise services, said Thomas.