Moving from data modeling to process modeling in CIM

This paper proposes to enhance the modeling capabilities of DMTF's Common Information Model (CIM). Currently CIM is used to represent a conceptual view of the IT environment, by modeling concepts related to elements to be managed. However, CIM Object Manager (CIMOM) implementations can utilize these models in no more capacity than as a passive database. We observe that a lot more management functionality could be incorporated into CIMOM middleware by enriching CIM so that it is able to represent process models in addition to data models. Using this representation CIMOM can be empowered to take on the role of an active decision-making entity, rather than just being a repository of management data. This enables embedding of powerful functionality in the middleware, which is currently custom-built by management applications instead. We demonstrate our approach by embedding an accounting process model into CIM, to realize an accounting system that can be customized for different scenarios.