Service Availability Forum™ Releases the Application Interface Specification (AIS).   The Service Availability Forum (SA Forum) Delivers the Next Critical Piece in the Development of Open, Modular Carrier-Grade Products.

Portland, Oregon - April 14, 2003 - The Service Availability Forum™, an industry coalition of premier communications and computing companies, today announced the release of the Application Interface Specification (AIS). This is the SA Forum’s second open interface specification enabling carrier-grade platforms, middleware and applications to deliver the critical elements needed for High Availability (HA) services.

“The release of the Application Interface Specification is the next critical step for the delivery of cost-effective, carrier-grade infrastructure solutions,” said Timo Jokiaho, president of the Service Availability Forum. “Delivery of this application-level high availability interface specification, in conjunction with the SA Forums’ Hardware Platform Interface (HPI) released in October of 2002, enables Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and middleware vendors to develop service applications and availability management middleware solutions within an open, high availability framework.”

Network Equipment Providers (NEPs), Telecom Equipment Manufacturers (TEMs) and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are evolving from a proprietary to an open, standards-based, “COTS (Commercial Off-the-Shelf)” development environment in an effort to lower costs and reduce development time. Aimed at companies working to address the transition from proprietary development to standards-based, modular development, the SA Forum enables software and hardware vendors to join NEPs and TEMs in the definition and development of these specifications. The Forum’s specifications also represent an opportunity for companies to focus increased resources on innovation and efforts to differentiate products.

This Application Interface Specification standardizes the interface between SA Forum compliant High Availability (HA) middleware and customer applications This Application Interface Specification specifies the key standards for use in implementing Service Availability High Available middleware and service applications – including an availability management framework, checkpointing, event notification, messaging, cluster membership, and distributed locking. “

As a founding member of the SA Forum, IBM is participating in the development of the open standards that will lead to accelerated time-to-market, lower costs, and innovation in carrier grade solutions,” said Mark Tempelmeyer, VP, Industry Software Development, IBM. “We are vitally interested in bringing the benefits of open standards to the market.”

A significant cost in the development of proprietary carrier-grade solutions is dedicated to developing interfaces to interoperate with a variety of redundant subsystems and applications. The communications industry has taken steps to reduce these costs and resources through the development of carrier-grade commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions through the SA Forum and with other industry initiatives such as the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) and and the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL). The SA Forum has worked closely with PICMG and OSDL to advance this industry effort to promote the adoption of standards-based network equipment components.

"The SA Forum application interface specification is an important step toward enabling open solutions for communications applications," said Timothy D. Witham, Lab Director, OSDL. "The specification combined with the Linux enhancements defined by OSDL's Carrier Grade Linux Working Group will result in cost effective solutions for carrier grade applications."

SA Forum Application Interface Specification Availability
The Application Interface Specification is available on April 14, 2003 and can be downloaded at http://www.saforum.org/specification. Interested parties may view; download and implement all released SA Forum specifications simply by signing a free “Specification License”. Initially, a “Self-Certification Program with Disclosure” will be utilized to drive effective implementation of the specifications.

The SA Forum HPI, delivered last October, specifies an interface between the operating system / hardware platform and the HA middleware, and is designed to modularize the HA hardware and software within the telecom equipment stack.. Since its release, SA Forum members currently adopting the SA Forum Hardware Platform Interface include, Force Computers, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, GoAhead Software, IBM, Intel, Mission Critical Linux, Motorola, Nokia, RadiSys, Eternal Systems, Solid Information Technology and UXComm.

About the Service Availability Forum
The Service Availability Forum is the industry body dedicated to developing specifications that facilitate the faster delivery of cost-effective, carrier-grade infrastructure equipment and applications. Created by industry leading communications and computing companies, the Forum’s specifications represent a crucial, missing piece of the COTS ecosystem model – open, carrier-grade platform and middleware interfaces that tie together all standards-based network equipment elements quickly and easily. Current members include, Alzato, China TMN, Continuous Computing, Eternal Systems, Force Computers, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, GNP, GoAhead Software, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, Intel, Mission Critical Linux, MontaVista Software, NEC, Nokia, Oracle Corporation, QNX, RadiSys, Samsung, Sun Microsystems, Solid Information Technology, TimesTen Performance Software and UXComm. Service Availability Forum membership offers the opportunity to take part in building the availability specifications for the future. For more information about the Service Availability Forum, visit www.saforum.org.