SNIA: Cloud Data Management Interface 2.0 Spec Now Open Source Standard

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) announced at its Storage Developer Conference, that the Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) 2.0 specification is now an open source standard.

This move empowers anyone to contribute to the ISO standard by signing the SNIA Contributor License Agreement.

Development of CDMI can now be done by using an open source tool chain to create the standard. This makes it easier to tap the broader community to work on advancing CDMI, as the SNIA Cloud Storage Technical Work Group (TWG) can now accept pull (change) requests on the CDMI specification from non-SNIA members. This open source community approach for the specification complements the open source contributions for the CDMI Reference Implementation.

CDMI provides end users with the ability to control the destiny of their data and ensure hassle-free data access, data protection and data migration form one cloud service to another. Version 2.0 will be a major revision to the CDMI specification. The first release of CDMI 2.0 specification is expected in 2H19.

“As CDMI moves toward its next major release, we are actively soliciting input and contributions from the broader community,” said David Slik, co-chair, Cloud Storage TWG, SNIA. “There are currently more than twenty products that meet the CDMI specification. By opening the specification repository, we hope to speed the development of this and other standards.“

Open sourcing CDMI 2.0 specification reflects SNIA’s commitment to open communities. SNIA embraces open source software and standards in a variety of ways, working collaboratively with open source communities to address evolving requirements and to democratize standards development.

“CDMI is an internationally recognized ISO standard, ISO/IEC 17826:2016, and continues to be implemented and deployed by developers worldwide,” added Alex McDonald, chair, cloud storage technologies initiative, SNIA. “I’m delighted to support SNIA’s new approach to standards specification development. Now, more developers and users can bring their experience to bear and further refine CDMI, which will benefit everyone who uses cloud storage.“

Anyone wishing to contribute to the specification standard may do so through the CDMI GitHub repository. To become a contributor, complete the Contributors License Agreement before submitting a pull request.

About CDMI
The Cloud Data Management Interface is an open international ISO standard, ISO/IEC 17826:2016, that defines the functional interface that applications will use to create, retrieve, update and delete data elements from the cloud. CDMI extensions are mature with multiple commercial and open source implementations in use.

Key features include:

Data management capabilities, including administration and management of user accounts, security access, monitoring and billing information, and management of storage that is accessible by other protocols

Capability of CDMI clients to tailor the management of containers and the data placed in them.
Ability to work alongside OpenStack Swift and Amazon S3 Models

Resources:
SNIA’s Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative, the CDMI and its current implementations.
Work SNIA is doing in open source software