The DMTF’s Cloud Management Working Group models the management of cloud services and the operations and attributes of the cloud service lifecycle through its work on the Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface (CIMI).
 
The CIMI specification describes the model and protocol for management interactions between a cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider and the consumers of an IaaS service. The basic resources of IaaS (machines, storage, and networks) are modeled to provide consumer management access to an implementation of IaaS and facilitate portability between cloud implementations that support the specification.

 
By developing a set of prescriptive specifications and sample implementations that deliver architectural semantics and implementation details, the Cloud Management Working Group helps achieve interoperable management of clouds between service requestors/developers and providers. This work is also utilized in the DMTF’s Cloud Management Initiative.