2012 was another amazing year for DMTF as we continue to gain recognition within the industry and across the globe for our ever-widening scope of standards.

DMTF fulfilled its promise to the cloud management industry with the mid-year release of the Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface (CIMI) suite of specs.  This suite includes not only the CIMI spec, but the CIMI XML schema, CIMI-CIM and the CIMI Primer. When combined with the release of OVF 2.0 in December, this suite of specifications fully establishes DMTF as a leader in cloud management standards.  DMTF wasted no time after the specs were released and immediately began verifying the interoperability of these standards by holding plugfests. Additionally, the Cloud Auditing Data Federation WG released their first specification draft and the newly formed Software Entitlement Working Group is beginning to plan their roadmap for 2013.

New standards were developed in the area of virtualization, platforms and networking as well.  These groups released revisions that represent progress in the area of a cohesive scheme to unify the configuration strategy for networking across these disciplines that will continue into 2013.  These groups also released a dozen profiles and update specifications, schemas and registries as they continue to widen the features in VMAN, SMASH and DASH. SMBIOS continues to adapt to current platforms by releasing updates and PMCI continues to mature, mapping to an ever-increasing number of platform components.

CIM received a refresh in December with the release of the CIM 3.0 architecture specification. In addition, four releases of the CIM v2 Schema were rolled out throughout the year.  Major infrastructure components such as machine readable profiles, updated profile registration standards and generic operations were released as well.

International recognition of DMTF standards continued into 2012 as OVF and VMAN became national and international standards. DMTF also formed the China Regional Chapter under the newly chartered Regional Chapter Committee, giving us a wider international presence. Our DMTF Japan Subcommittee continues to push regional awareness of DMTF standards through translated materials and a local language website.  And DMTF became one of nine organizations to have PAS submitter status into ISO, where WS Management continues down the process of becoming an international standard.

Interoperability improvements also continued as CDM released a version 2 of their specification. There are now 76 products that are in the DASH Certification Registry and the VCM Forum widened its scope to add Cloud to their charter, which previously consisted of virtualization management.

DMTF Alliance partnerships have continued to grow throughout 2012, with newly formed relationships with CCSA (China Communications Standards Association), CESI (China Electronics Standardization Institute), GICTF (Global Inter-Cloud Technology Forum), and the MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum).  DMTF now has 87 Academic Alliance institutions, adding 7 institutions and 17 members in 2012 from academia throughout the world. 

This is quite an amazing list of activities and accomplishments, but doesn't complete the list.  There were process improvements, incubator activities, industry events, press releases, support from our marketing committee, education improvements and two great academic events with APTS and SVM. The list of other standards activities is just too long to put in a few paragraphs. While this year has been great to DMTF, it is the members who drive these activities, implement these standards and ensure interoperability. Without their hard work and dedication, DMTF would not have achieved recognition for our ability to deliver on management standards with such a wide scope. Thank you to everyone who participated in DMTF activities this year.  I look forward to 2013 as we continue to lead the industry in areas of manageability.

- Jeff Hilland, DMTF President