Ten IT vendors have released a draft of a new specification, the service modeling language (SML), which the companies claimed will help defined a consistent way to express how computer networks, applications, servers and other IT resources are described in extensible markup language (XML).
SML enables a hierarchy of IT resource models to be created from reusable building blocks, rather than requiring custom descriptions of every service - reducing costs and system complexity for customers.
The group consisting of BEA, BMC, Cisco, Dell, EMC, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Sun, plans to submit the draft specification to an industry standards organization later this year.
SML has two unique properties that make it well-suited for modeling IT resources and services - support for rich constraints and alignment with XML message exchange architectures.
SML allows developers to build modeling information for applications, devices and services that can be used during all stages of the application or service lifecycle including configuration, problem, changes and release management. They are also useful for tactical processes such as service level, availability and capacity management. The SML specification will provide simplicity, integration and compatibility throughout this lifecycle for all components of an IT environment.
This common modeling language is an important step in simplifying IT management in multi-vendor environments, providing a way for information to be shared across diverse tools and applications.
The companies also plans to explore development of a library of core models to describe generic resources such as network elements, operating systems, storage devices, desktops, server systems, web servers, a directory service and more. With an agreed standard library of definition for this core set of resources and services, every vendor would be able to establish the generic nature of, and relationship between, every component comprising a specific IT service without prior knowledge of the objects that make up that service.
SML is based on work Microsoft began three and a half years ago on its System Definition Model (SDM), part of the vendor's Dynamic Systems Initiative aimed at simplifying complexity in users' IT infrastructure.
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