DMTF Announces Group Dedicated to SMASH Interoperability Program

SMASH Command Line Protocol Version 1.0 Now Final, SMASH Forum to Deliver Interoperability Tools for Server Management Across Diverse IT Environments

Portland, Ore. – January 24, 2006 – The Distributed Management Task Force, Inc. (DMTF®), the industry organization leading the development of management standards and integration technology for enterprise and Internet environments, today announced the formation of a Forum dedicated to the interoperability of the DMTF’s Systems Management Architecture for Server Hardware (SMASH) initiative specifications. The DMTF’s SMASH Server Management (SM) Command Line Protocol (CLP) Version 1.0, which was released in Final status today, enables simple and intuitive management of heterogeneous servers in the data center by addressing the end user requirement for a common command line syntax, allowing systems offered by different vendors to be managed in similar ways. Through the development of conformance testing programs, the SMASH Forum will extend these capabilities by helping deliver additional compatibility in cross-platform servers.

DMTF Forums are groups dedicated to a specific objective, and the purpose of the SMASH Forum is to ensure that consumers of SMASH-based server management technology – both end users and the ISV community – receive interoperable management technology for multi-vendor server systems. The SMASH Forum’s conformance testing programs will allow end users to experience distributed, secure, scaleable and extensible server management systems that are compatible across vendors.

“With many end users embracing grid and utility computing initiatives, server management continues to play a key role in controlling costs in the data center, and the DMTF has led the way with its SMASH server management specifications,” said Winston Bumpus, president, DMTF. “The SM CLP, released in Final status today, is being widely implemented in products from the industry’s leading server vendors, and the interoperability programs which will be developed by the DMTF’s SMASH Forum are the next step. As the SMASH specifications become the ubiquitous standards for server management, the work of the SMASH Forum will provide users with additional assurances of interoperability in their cross-platform implementations.”

For more information on the DMTF SMASH Forum and how to join, the group’s charter can be downloaded in PDF format. For more information on the SMASH initiative and server management, and to download the SM CLP Version 1.0 Final, visit the DMTF Web site here.

Industry Support for the SMASH Forum

Dell
“Dell is committed to helping customers simplify the diagnosis of disparate systems in the data center by reducing the number of tools and processes needed to manage standards-based hardware like Dell’s PowerEdge™ server line,” said Pete Morowski, vice president, software solutions at Dell. “The progress of SMASH and the formation of the Forum is an important step to help customers streamline their IT operations.”

Hitachi Ltd.
“Hitachi is very pleased with the official launch of the SMASH Forum,” said Masahiro Kitano, executive general manager, Enterprise Server Division, Hitachi, Ltd. “DMTF’s SMASH specifications and interoperability guidelines will accelerate Hitachi’s ‘Harmonious Computing’ service platform concept and will provide advanced server manageability and interoperability to our customers. Hitachi will strongly support the Forum activities for the continuous progress of the IT industry, as well as our customers’ benefit.”

HP
“HP believes that SMASH presents an extraordinary opportunity to meet customers’ requirements for consistent, cross-vendor server management,” said Dwight Barron, CTO, Industry Standard Servers, HP. “Today, HP delivers onboard SMASH support across its ProLiant server line, enabling standards-based access to critical server management functions. HP has contributed extensively to the SMASH specification and sees the SMASH Forum playing a central role in driving broad-based adoption of this important management standard.”

IBM
"SMASH is a great complement to IBM Director and our other industry-leading systems management tools, and will help our customers simplify server management in the heterogeneous datacenter," said Dr. Tom Bradicich, CTO, xSeries and BladeCenter, IBM. "As a founder and co-chair of the DMTF Server Management Working Group, we've shown our commitment to SMASH by contributing to all the specifications in development. IBM is dedicated to SMASH interoperability, helping to establish criteria and methodologies to enable companies to demonstrate compliance with SMASH specifications."

Symantec
“Providing our customers with confidence that their servers can be uniformly managed despite product differences is key to delivering software automation that will fundamentally increase operational efficiency,” said Mark Bregman, chief technical officer, Symantec Corporation. “We are actively participating within the SMASH Forum to enable trusted management of SMASH-compliant hardware.”

WBEM Solutions
“WBEM Solutions is proud to participate in the DMTF’s SMASH Forum and to help drive the SMASH specifications,” said Troy Biegger, VP marketing and sales, WBEM Solutions. “We are planning to add SMASH support this year to both our C WBEM Server and J WBEM Server products, providing our customers with a complete management solution.”

More industry support for the DMTF’s SMASH Forum and SM CLP – from companies and organizations including Avocent, Clovis, Cyclades, Fabric 7 and Newisys – can be found on the DMTF’s Web site at here.

About the DMTF
With more than 3,500 active participants, the Distributed Management Task Force, Inc. (DMTF) is the industry organization leading the development of management standards and the promotion of interoperability for enterprise and Internet environments. DMTF standards provide common management infrastructure components for instrumentation, control and communication in a platform-independent and technology neutral way. DMTF standards include the Common Information Model (CIM), communication/control protocols like Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and the Systems Management Architecture for Server Hardware (SMASH) initiative. Information about DMTF’s standards and activities can be found at www.dmtf.org.

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