DCML: Big Deal or Not?

Need another acronym to remember? Ready or not, here comes DCML, or Data Center Markup Language, which was unveiled last week amid a flurry of stories in the IT media. EDS and Opsware are among the prime movers in this intiative, which promises to "move utility computing from promise to reality." If you missed the coverage of the rollout,Serverwatch offers a user-friendly introduction to DCML and why it may matter. With the support of 25 high-tech companies, does DCML have enough critical mass to take off?

"Some pundits are pointing to the notably absent major players such as HP, IBM, Microsoft, and Sun," writes Doug Kaye of RDS Strategies. "And if DCML will help us manage the data center, where's Cisco? I'd track this effort, but don't take it seriously until you see the support of the folks who make the systems we put into our data centers."

This may take some time, according to Opsware chairman Marc Andreessen, who says DCML can be thought of as "HTML for the datacenter." Andreessen believes the major players will come on board as the technology proves itself. "To me, where [DCML] is right now is analogous to HTML and TCP/IP," Andreessen told InfoWorld. "Companies like IBM and Sun were not in favor of them originally but ended up adopting them and are now enthusiastic supporters."

When we last wrote about utility computing, the bottom line was that the hype was well ahead of both the reality and the demand. "The utility model is a megatrend," Hewlett Packard's Mark McKenna said at last year's IMN show. "Will utility computing get us out of this recession? No. Will utility computing be a major trend 10 years from now? Absolutely."