Intel Corp has revealed details of its implementation plan for incorporating the Desktop Management Task Force’s Desktop Management Interface into its products. The specification is intended to standardise the management of desktop systems, components and networked peripherals and services and the Santa Clara, California chipmaker announced its intention to adopt it back in March. Intel says that in the beginning the implementation will concentrate on its networked products, all of which are intended to be Desktop Management Interface enabled by the middle of next year. Management Information Files are already available for NetWare 4.0 Open Data Interface drivers for the company’s EtherExpress 16 AT family of local network adaptors, via the company’s bulletin board service, and both the EtherExpress and TokenExpress adaptors will implement the Desktop Management Interface in their next releases. The company’s LANDesk family, including its LANDesk Manager system, Virus Protect software, Response software, and Simple Network Management Protocol gateway, will similarly be enhanced as each release is introduced over the next few months. Basic Desktop Management Interface compliance will be implemented on the company’s intelligent application servers, and Intel says that eventually – as the specification is defined – full instrumentation will be incorporated, enabling the servers to share information, send alerts, issue commands and trigger events. Also to be enhanced are the StorageExpress system, at both the client and server levels, the company’s NetportExpress print server, and SatisFAXtion software. Intel was showcasing its Desktop Management Interface implementations at the Task Force Developers’ Conference late last month, including a new Desktop Management Interface application called Desktop Management Interface Access which – launched from LANDesk Manager – scans for Management Information Files and presents information about Desktop Management Interface-compliant products, the company says. A second implementation uses a Management Information FileManagement Information Base translator to show how network devices can be managed via Desktop Management Interface and the Simple Network Management Protocol. Finally, the company was showing off an implementation of the LANDesk Inventory Manager, which it says creates Management Information Files of the hardware and software installed on the local machine, which can then be read by the Desktop Management Interface Access application and used as a foundation for retrofitting desktop personal computers for Desktop Management Interface management.
