IBM has announced application development tools along with runtime product support for the emerging Web Services Distributed Management (WSDM) specification.

IBM's WSDM Software for Developers is an early set of tools designed to help programmers build interfaces to manage applications and network attached resources, autonomic applications, and system management tasks. IBM's tools are available through alphaWorks, the company site for publishing pre-release technologies.

Additionally, IBM said that WSDM would be added to WebSphere, Tivoli and IBM Systems group products delivered during the next 12 months. IBM is kicking-off its release schedule with the launch early next year of a Resource Dependency Service component for the Virtualization Engine Platform.

WSDM originated in the blizzard of XML web services standards work that engulfed the industry two years ago. Backed by Cisco Systems, Computer Associates International and Hewlett-Packard, among others, WSDM is designed to provide a cross-platform standard and technologies for the management of network-attached software and hardware resources.®