* Service Provisioning Markup Language
Provisioning resources to a wide-spread and diverse user community can be a tedious administrative task.
A proposed standard, the Service Provisioning Markup Language (SPML) 1.0, is supposed to ease that undertaking.
SPML is an XML-based technology that defines how to exchange user, resource and service provisioning information between organizations. The framework is expected to establish an open, standard protocol for the integration and interoperability of service provisioning requests.
Our Special Focus author (jfontana@nww.com) notes that critics, namely heavyweights IBM and Microsoft, say SPML in its 1.0 form lacks features beyond simple addition and deletion of users and is not flexible enough to integrate into the palette of Web services standards they are developing known as WS-* (pronounced WS-Star). The two software giants are now working with OASIS to correct those shortcomings.
The protocol, therefore, appears to satisfy short-term corporate needs while creating a starting point for developing a long-term solution that will work within Web services deployments.
For more on this topic see: https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0908specialfocus.html
