IBM Tivoli is starting to show off the results of its OSLC efforts. Both IBM Tivoli Monitoring vNext, and IBM’s open service delivery platform are now available as open betas. Open services that standardize and enable cross-vender integration is a top requirement for IT management applications. The Administrator should have a single federated view of data from 3rd party applications, custom-built IT tools, and, of course, multiple applications from the same vendor. These beta offerings demonstrate that the OSLC approach applies beyond ALM and into the realms for IT administration and devops.
Today, you can download the IBM Tivoli Monitoring vNext Beta, which provides an OSLC interface to retrieve health & performance data for a resource. These interfaces are being developed in the community, and you can even participate in the Performance Monitoring Workgroup which will define the open specification.
Linked data is a key component of OSLC: Resources should be identified by URI’s, the URIs should be accessible over HTTP, a query to the URI should provide useful information in a standard format, and include links to other resources. In an IT environment, it is also beneficial to have a registry of these links. For example, a registry can give you all possible sources of information for a given computer. Today, you can download IBM’s open service delivery platform beta, which includes a linked data registry for tracking your IT resources.
There are many examples of OSLC in action for systems management. A key value of this open architecture is the ability to dynamically plug in new services from multiple sources. You are able to extend these scenarios, using the open specifications, to enable new capability. Just as OSLC-based integrations have proven so valuable in the ALM space, the IBM Tivoli scenarios will accelerate deployment, integration, and workflow automation across IBM, partner, and 3rd party tools. The open and standardized approach to linking data means that clients and partners can rapidly deploy and improve collaboration across interdependent roles and functions with less labor and cost; regardless of the source and the management scenarios applied.
Today, you can download example source code in java, python, and TDI that will enable your application to integrate with the registry, provide additional data, and consume health information from ITM. OSLC enables plug and play integrations that allow you to code to a single interface and integrate with multiple applications.
This is an exciting advancement for OSLC (and IBM Tivoli clients) that demonstrates the Core ideas of OSLC are generally applicable. There is also a forum on developerWorks for beta users, and other interested parties, to share ideas and experiences.