Web services management standards convergence
Well
this certainly passed me by (although I don't recall any major announcements/press releases). Fortunately, the ever-watchful
Tim Bray didn't miss it, as he points out in this
recent excellently-titled post.
At long last the industry behemoths on either side of the web services management standards stand-off - HP and IBM with the
OASIS' WSDM and Intel and Microsoft with the
DMTF's WS-Management - have announced plans to converge the respective standards over the next 18-24 months. I am sure, as the four vendors point out in the "announcement", that this is in part the result of totally justifiable customer pressure. But I can't help thinking that BMC, CA, Dell and Fujitsu, all of whom are active participants in both camps, also had something to do with it. BMC, CA and Fujitsu in particular need convergence given their focus on enterprise systems management. Without it, they either risk backing the wrong horse or incur the cost and time penalties of supporting both standards.
This harmonisation is definitely welcome. However, like Tim, I am far from convinced by the following:
Customers and vendors should continue investing in solutions and products based on the implementations of the current specifications related to this work. The vendors are assuring that this harmonization of the competing specifications will be a smooth evolution from today’s environment and provide a simplified technology base for the future. As the new specifications are finalized a clear migration path will be defined.
Customers are deploying web services technology today using a wide variety of vendor solutions, from application servers and ESBs through to BPM and identity management. They and their suppliers are required to take a big leap of faith with at least two years before they'll see whether they are going to land safely. Not only are they relying on a process that is, more often than not, subject to delays, they are also dependent on, as Tim so rightly points out, the development teams at HP, IBM, Intel and Microsoft who are going to be
supporting the existing to-be-superseded and to-be-amended specs in the interim
whilst worrying about the migration to the converged specifications for the future.
As I said, this harmonisation is definitely welcome. But for customers and other vendors I think there's some way to go before they will know whether it is better late than never. In the meantime, they should monitor progress carefully and continue to exert pressure (this announcement suggests it can be effective) on HP, IBM, Intel and Microsoft to follow through on their commitments. They should also seek details of the migration path and its implications for current solutions as work progresses on convergence of the specifications and not wait until the end of the process.
