Standard Response

3:45 PM -- Spring's in the air. Inhale deeply and fill your lungs with the smell of budding life.

Just this morning, a new standard started to blossom. An interoperability standard. (See Tech Leaders Create Fed Spec.)

That, of course, immediately prompted questions like: Where did I leave those pruning shears?

Yes, BMC, Fujitsu, HP, and IBM are dancing around this new maypole to improve information sharing between databases. A standardized configuration management database (CMDB) will translate into "greater choice and flexibility in terms of adding new hardware, applications, and middleware," the vendors said in their statement today.

Tricky stuff, this interoperability business. And I might rush right out and embrace this latest effort, if the IT landscape weren't already pockmarked by so many similar intentions that have either gone awry or unrealized. In fact, I've begun to think of interoperability in the same way I do the all-you-can-eat concept -- sounds so tempting and great, at least until you dive in.To give the devil its due, interoperability has had some marginal successes. Usually the more nichey such efforts are, the better. Get three or four vendors working together on a common implementation of a spec. Ignore the fact that it's almost always to blunt the advantage of a Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, or EMC. Hope other vendors sign on, then pray it doesn't become a technology gulag.

Remember Aperi? I didn't think so. That open-standards-minded organization launched itself last fall, spearheaded in large part by IBM. (See Aperi Appears Amid Questions.) Six months later, the only one talking about it is our very own Jon William Toigo, and he's got his doubts. (See Remaining Relevant and Aperi's Seeds of Revolution.)

Likewise, I'm not so sure the CMDB revolution will be televised, though I wish them well. But I also wonder if it's not just a bit of spring fever, one that will evaporate along with all the other signs of the season.

Terry Sweeney, Editor in Chief, Byte and Switch

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