By: Mike Baskey, DMTF Board Chair

This month, we wanted to focus on the DMTF Board of Directors and the role we play in the organization. We would first like to acknowledge that Cisco has returned to the DMTF board. They will be represented by Jeff Wheeler, who has been active in telco/network, virtualization and the cloud space. Additionally, DMTF will hold officer elections in a few months. Though many of the Vice President positions are held by board companies, there are also leadership level companies that currently hold executive officer positions. These positions are vital to our organization. We encourage active and interested leadership members to consider getting involved.

The DMTF Board is entrusted with setting the overall direction for the organization as well as holding fiduciary responsibility for DMTF funded projects. The Board just finished the budget for FY2010 and is working to determine funding for Initiatives, which expand the reach of the organization in the areas members determine the most valuable. The Board designed the Initiative program to improve the efficacy of DMTF technology by linking the Technical Committee, Marketing Committee and Interoperability Committee to better integrate and focus DMTFís efforts, and make our deliverables more consumable. Virtualization was the latest initiative, which led to the inception of the VMAN Forum. This structure provides a means for related work to be pulled together in a common place. Cloud Computing is likely an area that will receive increased focus looking forward.

The DMTF Board has also been an active participant in reviewing DMTF processes to ensure they are optimal and consistent with best practices in the industry, as well as efficient and fair for the organization. The Process Committee drives these projects, but the Board has played a role in evaluating policies, such as the technology submission policy and IP/copyright considerations. For example, the DMTF Incubator Process was developed as a result of these discussions. The DMTF Board also works closely with our alliances partners, helping improve industry integration. A recent example the DMTF Boardís work with standards organizations and our Alliance Partners was in the development of the Cloud Standards website. This helps DMTF to better align itself with other standards organizations through the adoption of their principles and best practices.

In the end, our goal is to help keep the organization relevant. We are always open to new ideas on improving our relevance and the openness of the organization.

As always, please contact me with any questions or comments at chair@dmtf.org.