SNIA Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI™)

Introduction to the SNIA Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI™) 3.0

The SNIA Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI), also known as ISO/IEC 17826, provides a vendor-neutral standard interface for multi-protocol discovery, configuration, management and portable data movement. Implementers should consider using CDMI when applications require protocol-independent data management. 

Common use cases include:

1. Clients need to discover which namespaces exist
2. Clients need to discover which data access protocols can be used to access a namespace
3. Clients need to discover which data access protocols are supported for a namespace
4. Clients need to specify which data access protocols are active for a namespace
5. Clients need to specify how data should be managed
6. Clients need to move data between systems while preserving cross-protocol structure, contents and metadata

CDMI allows clients to use a lightweight and consistent management interface independent of data access protocols. By enabling management operations outside each specific data access protocol, CDMI works across multiple data access protocols and multiple deployment models, including on-premises, hybrid, and cloud deployments.

CDMI 3.0 is the next major revision of the standard. The SNIA Cloud Storage Technical Work Group is adding support for Model Context Protocol (MCP) as a peer protocol alongside HTTP, support for new AI-driven use cases, and support for additional storage protocols and data types, including object, table, graph and streaming data. This whitepaper highlights additions to core use case under the heading, and concludes with a summary of improvements and refinements originating from implementer feedback received over the last three years.