SNIA Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI™)
The SNIA Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI™), also standardized as ISO/IEC 17826, is an open, license-free and vendor-neutral international standard that specifies a management data representation (data object, container object and queue object) together with a RESTful HTTP-based management protocol to enable inter-operable and multi-protocol namespace discovery, namespace provisioning, data lifecycle management, data access management and data portability for data stored in cloud, hybrid and on-premises storage systems.
CDMI is widely used in scientific, government, and enterprise data management systems to allow data clients to discover data namespaces and specify data management properties for any URL-accessible data resource, and to manage data movement between systems. CDMI is used by servers to provide multi-protocol and cross-protocol interoperable data management and data portability functionality that exists outside the expressiveness of each individual data access protocol. The capabilities of the underlying storage and data services are exposed using CDMI capabilities so that clients can discover and understand what services are available.
Specifications & White Papers
Introduction to the SNIA Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI™) 3.0
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.
SNIA CDMI™ (Cloud Data Management Interface) Graph Relationships CDMI Extension v0.0.1
This CDMI Extension is intended for CDMI 2.0 developers who are considering a standardized way to add structured relationship metadata to CDMI objects.
SNIA CDMI™ (Cloud Data Management Interface) Multiple Representations CDMI Extension
CDMI Extension is intended for CDMI 2.0 developers who are considering a standardized way to add multiple representations to CDMI objects. When multiple compatible implementations are demonstrated and approved by the Technical Work Group, this extension will be incorporated into the CDMI standard.
Resources
CDMI v2.0
This CDMI International Standard is intended for application developers who are implementing or using 7 cloud storage. It documents how to access cloud storage and to manage the data stored there
Intelligent Data Management: Shaping the Future for AI Workloads Q&A
Learn how intelligent data management using SNIA CDMI ™ is taking on AI workload challenges by providing a standardized way to attach rich, self‑describing metadata to stored data, which supports regulatory requirements such as GDPR Article 20 and enables seamless data portability across systems.
CDMI Version History
Previous versions of the CDMI specification and additional presentations and white papers
