Stories about: Distributed Management Task Force

Standards wars, such as the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD battle, can keep many potential users on the sidelines until a winner is declared. Virtualization software vendors are trying to avoid just such a battle over the adoption of virtual appliances.

A new low-level PC management standard is brewing, one that may eventually enable IT managers to remotely diagnose and fix malfunctioning machines -- even those that are turned off or unable to boot.

Microsoft and Novell will enable virtualization for each other's server operating systems as part of the companies' ongoing alliance to make Windows and Linux more interoperable.

With competition in the virtualization market increasing, VMware has been active in seeking standards that would allow users to easily run a mix a virtualization products in their enterprises. Raghu Raghuram, vice president of platform products at VMware, this week explained the company's approach, where standards are needed and what it will mean for users.

Among the ways Ameritrade Holding is looking to reduce IT complexity and costs is a decision to move Unix platforms to Linux operating systems running on Intel-based hardware -- a process the company began a year ago and hopes to complete in 18 months.

Microsoft and Sun Microsystems on Friday published a specification to leverage Web services for managing a broad range of IT systems including PCs and devices on a network.

Intel, Dell, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard on Monday announced plans to jointly work with an industry organization to standardize the way servers are managed.

The OASIS standards organization on Tuesday announced it has formed a technical committee responsible for making distributed systems management over the Internet.

OASIS has formed a technical committee to propose an XML-based management protocol specification for Web services, said a Novell official Thursday who is chairing the committee.

At its developers' conference, the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) Monday released Version 2.6 of the Common Information Model (CIM), which includes models to administer Unix systems and Web-based Enterprise Management networks.