The Readership

I intend this book to be of practical use to those, perhaps with an SNMP or TMN background, who need to become familiar with WBEM/CIM to design a WBEM management system, to produce a CIM model of a device or service, to implement a WBEM management system, or to interwork with one.

Some of the early chapters compare WBEM/CIM with SNMP and TMN, and this material also would be of interest to managers and people working in marketing organisations. My primary target readership, however, is the working system architect and engineer who will be designing CIM-based systems and writing CIM clients and providers.

I work in the telecommunications field, and this book inevitably has a telecommunications flavour, but it is not only aimed at a telecommunications readership. Where I have used a telecommunications example which might not be clear to all readers, I have tried to explain the basic concepts in the Glossary starting on page 307. The book is designed to be of value to anyone using WBEM and CIM, whatever their industry.

Similarly, I am a Python and C++ programmer. Coding examples are restricted to Chapter 12 and are only given in C++. I have, however, kept the code very simple and translation into Java for use with a Java-based WBEM server should not be difficult.