1/ After hearing a lot of @DMTF Redfish talks at @osfc_io this week – it hit me:
Redfish is the new SNMP
And I mean that in the unkindest way possible.
@DMTF @osfc_io 2/ Every 10 years or so, some community discovers the notion of abstract syntax, and sets out to define *everything* with standard schemas.
X.500, XML, JSON, …
@DMTF @osfc_io 3/ The standards process is soon years ahead of implementations (which are driven by actual engineeering). Nobody can even afford to implement all of the relevant schemas.
@DMTF @osfc_io 4/ Next, the implementors discover urgent needs for stuff not in the standard, and sure as hell can’t wait for the process. (Or even afford to *join* $$$ the frickin committees)
@DMTF @osfc_io 5/ So every vendor and product ends up with proprietary schemas which last forever. And no two products implement the same subset of standard schemas.
@DMTF @osfc_io 6/ Even worse, the standards guy come up with stuff that is hard or impossible to implement in the real world, so not even 1 entire schema works the same everywhere.
@DMTF @osfc_io It is *possible* to create beautiful frameworks which can generate most of the code directly from the schemas. But in the real world, we are saddled by code we have already, and the beautiful stuff becomes just another wart on the side.
@DMTF @osfc_io 7/ The IETF has standardized thousands of MIBs. Operating systems never even came with SNMP turned on by default.
A single Ethernet interface today has perhaps a hundred relevant MIBs. The hardware provides a lot of the info – but the software gulf is huge.
@DMTF @osfc_io 9/ @DMTF Redfish is going down the same path. So many schemas, so few implementations.
@DMTF @osfc_io 10/ Meanwhile, if you actually want to establish a standard – contribute code, not specifications. TCP/IP took off because Berkeley gave away an implementation. Where did OSI go?
@DMTF @osfc_io 11/ BTW, I speak from experience about Redfish. At @DriveScale_inc we have a product which started out implementing Redfish (my fault personally). Now, its a mess. Just like everyone else’s is/will be.