The Distributed Management Task Force announced on Thursday that it would deliver a set of specifications designed to enable better interoperability, security and management of desktop and mobile client systems.

The Desktop and mobile Architecture for System Hardware (DASH) Initiative taps into existing standards, such as the DMTF's Web Services for Management (WS-Management) specification, which would enable standards-based Web services management for such user devices. The proposed spec also integrates with the Common Information Model (CIM) so that it can be easily incorporated into enterprise network managers existing management tools, the DMTF says.

Since its inception, the Desktop and Mobile Working Group (DMWG) has garnered more than 180 members from more than 35 companies, including Dell, HP and Intel. The group members worked together to build standards for secure out-of-band and remote management of desktop and mobile clients. DASH includes architectural semantics, industry standard protocols and a set of profiles to standardize the management of desktop and mobile systems independent of machine state, operating platform or vendor, the DMTF says.

By tapping WS-Management as its management protocol, DASH operates at the application layer and is able to discover the presence of management resources and navigate between them, according to a DMTF technical paper. The standard will also be able to create and delete management resources, such as settings and dynamic values, and enumerate the contents of containers and collections, such as large tables and logs. The proposed specification also will be able to subscribe and delivery events generated by management resources and execute specific management methods.

In terms of security, DASH utilizes industry standard network and transport layer encryption, authentication and authorization mechanisms, and establishes standard profiles for roles, authorization and account management, the DMTF says.

"DASH is a significant step forward that utilizes the latest technologies to provide an advanced framework for desktop and mobile management," said Winston Bumpus, president of the DMFT in a press release. "By delivering an interoperable approach and relief for this key pain point in the distributed enterprise, DASH will facilitate new levels of efficiency and help reduce costs."