Major international telecommunications service providers are teaming under the auspices of the Network Management Forum to agree purchasing specifications for an open, standardised computing environment to support their network, service and business management needs – and with annual spending of $20,000m a year on computer systems, the parties involved have the muscle to impose any standard they set. The service providers including AT&T Co, British Telecommunications Plc, France Telecom, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp, Stet SpA, Telefonica de Espana SA and European Telecommunications Informatics Services, have formed a team within the Forum called Spirit for Service Provider Integrated Requirements for Information Technology – to manage the effort. Computing and equipment suppliers that have joined include Alcatel NV, Compagnie des Machines Bull SA, Hewlett-Packard Co, Digital Equipment Corp, GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd and IBM Corp. The objective will be a realistic specification that can be met by a wide variety of suppliers, but the final say in the specs will be left with the service suppliers, making it highly likely that Unix System V.4 will be at the core of the specification. The work of Spirit will be an input to the OmniPoint programme, an agreed collection of specifications and technology needed to achieve integrated service management, including open management systems, reflecting combined efforts of user groups, standards bodies and consortia such as X/Open Co Ltd, Open Software Foundation and Object Management Group.
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