As we look ahead, DMTF remains firmly focused on advancing the standards, tools, and collaborative frameworks that enable interoperable management across the IT ecosystem. The months ahead will be marked by continued progress in our working groups, the evolution of key specifications, and deeper engagement with industry stakeholders, such as our expanding list of alliance partners, to ensure our specifications remain relevant, scalable, and aligned with real-world needs. With the talent of dedicated members, the organization will continue to support the industry and address end-user challenges by publishing meaningful standards and growing our open-source tools.
With critical initiatives underway, it's important to understand our direction and the opportunities for your company to participate.
The Redfish standard will continue to advance under the guidance of the Redfish Forum. The Forum is focused on the following deliverables and initiatives over the next year:
- UALink support. A new partnership with UALink will introduce new modeling requirements for UALink devices and fabrics.
- Continued engagement with SNIA and NVMe. As the needs of the storage ecosystem continue to grow, we look to our partners to help Redfish stay aligned with the rest of the industry.
- Leverage PMCI’s host interface advancements. Since MMBI is now a standard, there is renewed interest in leveraging this technology for Redfish.
- Infrastructure (power and cooling) modeling. New requirements for infrastructure manageability are coming from various OCP groups. Some potential additions include new management use cases for coolant distribution units, backup power systems, and policy modeling.
- Conformance testing. Continued refinement and expansion of our conformance toolset, especially for end-to-end functional testing. New scope for the Redfish Forum to grow into product conformance registration will raise the bar for interoperability and quality.
Over the next year, the PMCI working group has a robust set of deliverables, including but not limited to:
- New USB-based management interface specifications: MCTP over USB 1.1 (enhancement) and NC-SI over Ethernet over USB 1.0 (new spec)
- New PLDM models for Server SoC, bulk telemetry, crash log, and watchdog timer
- Sensor scalability enhancements to PLDM for platform monitoring and control specification
- Enhancements to the MCTP Base specification for discovery and negotiation mechanisms
- Minor feature enhancements to PLDM firmware update and PLDM file transfer specifications
- PCIe Gen7 support, in addition to MCTP over PCIe VDM binding specification
- Enhancement to PLDM state set specification
- Release of conformance tools for PMCI specifications
- Submission of ISO books for MCTP and PLDM specification
Turning to the SPDM Working Group, several initiatives are on the agenda for 2026. As the year begins, the group is focusing on:
- Authorization Policy for DMTF and update to Authorization to support Post-Quantum Cryptography
- An update to SPDM will occur once a definition of hybrid encryption is standardized
Our decades-long commitment to CIM and SMBIOS continues, and 2026 will bring new versions of these standards, which remain hallmarks of DMTF’s 30-plus years of dedication to the industry.
Educational outreach remains a top priority for the organization. We plan to create additional educational materials for our website, the Redfish Developer Hub, and our YouTube channel. Attendance at events and industry meetings provides valuable face-to-face opportunities, and we plan to attend in person again this year. Be sure to stay up to date on where we’ll be in 2026! Information and educational outreach opportunities can be found here. For the latest DMTF announcements, be sure to visit our news page or subscribe to our newsletter.
APTS is back! Be sure to mark your calendar to join us for APTS 2026, March 16-19, at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in Hillsboro, Oregon. APTS is a no-cost, DMTF-only hybrid event. Whether you will be attending virtually or in person, please register here. Your registration will help assess the hybrid bandwidth needs. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to participate in some of the most important technical work of the year. Learn more about APTS 2026 and its schedule.
And, if you missed our recap of the organization's Year-in-Review by President Jeff Hill, you can read it here.
Membership renewals are right around the corner, and we hope to continue our collaboration on this valuable work with you by our side. If your company is not yet a member and you want to learn more, we invite you to consider how DMTF’s mission and our unique standards could benefit both your company and the industry at large. As always, thank you for your ongoing commitment to the organization's work.
None of this progress is possible without the expertise, collaboration, and commitment of our members and contributors. Your active participation ensures that DMTF standards continue to address real technical challenges while anticipating what’s next for the industry. As a reminder, annual member renewals are due by March 31. We encourage you to renew promptly to maintain uninterrupted access to working groups, technical resources, and the collaborative community that drives our mission forward. If your company is not yet a member and you want to learn more, we invite you to consider how DMTF’s mission and our unique standards could benefit both your company and the industry at large.
As always, thank you for your ongoing commitment to the organization's work.