Evaluating software deployment languages and schema: an experience report

Software distribution is evolving from a physical media approach to one where it is practical and advantageous to leverage the connectivity of networks. Network distribution of software systems provides timeliness and continuity of evolution not possible with physical media distribution methods. To support network-based software distribution, companies and organizations such as Microsoft, Marimba, and the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF) are strengthening their efforts to package software systems in a way that is conducive to network distribution and management. The result of these efforts has led to the creation of software description languages and schema such as the Open Software Description format created by Microsoft and Marimba and the Management Information Format created by DMTF. While these efforts are steps in the right direction, they do not address deployment issues in a complete and systematic fashion. The contribution of this paper is to evaluate these leading software description technologies.