Some of the major players in the IT business, being AMD, Dell, Intel, Microsoft and Sun are driving a new Web Services Management (WS-Management) specification. This specification will address the cost and complexity involved in IT management by providing a common means for systems to access and exchange management data.

"By using Web services to manage IT systems, deployments that support WS-Management will enable IT managers to remotely access devices on their networks, regardless of whether the systems are just out of the box, powered down or otherwise unavailable."

WS-Management also supports a full spectrum of differing usage scenarios, including the management of silicon components and handheld devices to PCs, servers and large-scale datacenters.