The DCL identifies

The DCL identifies two levels of technical priorities for Linux in the data center: Priority One Capabilities are considered the most important for data center readiness for Linux, while Priority Two Capabilities are those intended to stimulate thought and discussion.

Beyond general priorities of importance, the DCL working group examines Linux enterprise capabilities in the traditional functional areas:
Scalability
Performance
Reliability, availability, serviceability (RAS)
Manageability
Clusters
Security
Usability
Standards
The standards category references specifications controlled outside DCL. This category includes only capabilities with standards related to adopting Linux in data centers.

At this stage, the OSDL DCL investigation is focused on enterprise-level usage models. The technical discussions center around data center issues such as security, storage networking, and file system performance. Because the objective of the DCL is to accelerate the maturation of Linux as an enterprise operating system, investigation of the other features on this list concentrates on server functionality and data center administration needs. Clearly, most of the features on this list are equally important to all who develop, use, or administer the system. But these nonserver-related issues are addressed in other OSDL initiatives such as the Desktop Linux working group.

In the latter half of 2004 the DCL Working Group will move on to its second objective: documenting the requirements necessary to advance Linux further in the data center, and recommending technical approaches to meet those requirements.
Call for Participation

The mission of the Data Center Linux (DCL) Working Group is to provide a forum for industry leaders to accelerate adoption and deployment of Linux in data centers.

The working group has completed its first pass at identifying Linux capabilities in the data center, and has developed a prioritized list of capabilities needed. The Data Center Linux Technical Capabilities v1.0 document is available for public review on the OSDL Web site. We encourage any interested person to review it and provide input. Together we can all help Linux become the enterprise operating system of choice.