The Open Virtualization Format (OVF) specification is a standard being
developed within the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) association in
support of promoting an open, secure, portable, efficient and extensible format
for the packaging and distribution of software to be run in virtual machines.
DMTF is a not-for-profit association of industry members dedicated to promoting
enterprise and systems management and interoperability. Members and non-members
may reproduce DMTF specifications and documents for uses consistent with this
purpose, provided that correct attribution is given.
IBM sees much potential in the development of the OVF standard, in support of
creating an open environment that defines the standard means to represent and
distribute virtual machine / virtual appliance content. To
further promote the adoption of OVF based packages, we have developed tooling to
assist those interested in representing virtual machine / virtual appliances in
OVF distributable format.