DMTF’s Platform Management Components Intercommunications (PMCI) Working Group recently developed two new pieces of educational material -- a white paper, “Security Protocol and Data Model (SPDM) Architecture White Paper” and a presentation focused on, “Platform Security: Infrastructure Protection with DMTF's Security Protocol & Data Model (SPDM).”

The white paper presents an overview of the SPDM architecture, its goals, and a high-level summary of its use within a larger solution. This paper accompanies the SPDM 1.0 specification (DSP0274); the white paper that will accompany the SPDM 1.1 specification will be forthcoming. This paper is designed for readers interested in understanding the use of the SPDM to facilitate security of the communications among components of platform management subsystems. It is not a replacement for the individual SPDM specifications, but instead provides an overview of how the specifications operate within a larger solution. 

The presentation is designed for both technical and non-technical audiences to help them gain an understanding of the problems facing platform infrastructure security.  It takes the reader through the attack surfaces and other security concerns and then describes how SPDM mitigates these issues. For more technically-advanced audiences, the presentation then outlines a brief overview of SPDM itself before walking through how DMTF Alliance Partners are utilizing SPDM to create a holistic and leveraged security solution. Coupled with the white paper, the two educational pieces provide use cases that can help educate business leaders and decision makers that are not intricately involved in implementation or the challenges related to platform security.

The PMCI architecture focuses on intercommunications among different platform-management subsystem components in a standards-based manner across any management component implementation, independent of the operating system state. The SPDM architecture focuses on security relative to these communications -- servers, desktop systems, mobile systems, thin clients, bladed systems, and other types of devices might contain a platform management subsystem. 

Learn more by downloading the presentation and white paper – and share with your teams and partners – today! For more information about the PMCI Working Group and the platform management standards it defines, please visit https://www.dmtf.org/standards/pmci.