Protocol vs. API: OpFlex

An API and Protocol both enable communication between two (or more if bus is involved) endpoints that are well defined and have address reachability. But API wins over protocol because of the flexibility that it provides over a static protocol. This is especially true in infrastructure management. With an API interface, one can support multiple management models including but not limited to programmatic (rpc, messaging), declarative (all those ini files or config-t command on Cisco IOS).


A key initiative in the cloud/virtualization industry is to open source every component in VMware's ecosystem. It started with hypervisor, then jumped the stack and moved to cloud management suites. What is not standard and open source yet is a set or inventory of managed objects. I am talking like managed objects that can be queried like exists at a much primitive level in SNMP. vCenter has such as inventory of managed objects and the industry should endeavor to create a standard and open source version of this inventory of managed objects.


Recently I came across a draft from Cisco on Opflex. I think the authors are attempting to create open src version of inventory of managed objects, but doing so in a very inflexible way i.e. creating a protocol for communication between endpoints. It would have been more useful had this initiative tried to create a framework with abstract objects that could be customized for the use case. The framework could offer a few basic services and define a few primitives. One of that service could have been endpoint registry, another could be endpoint profile. While it is positioned as a distributed system, it includes a domain which bring a domain controller into the picture.


What the cloud/virtualization industry needs is not another protocol but a SNMP like system that is open source but works at a much higher layer of abstraction instead of just device. We need to create a open source version of inventory of managed objects that can managed virtual resources that could run on any hypervisor.