Each release of the cmpi specification is accompanied by a set of C-language header files that represent the implementation of the interface.
CMPI allows CIM providers to be developed that are mostly or completely agnostic to the type of WBEM server they are being used with.
Therefore, CMPI providers can be deployed across a variety of operating environments with no or minimal adaptation work.
The original input to the CMPI standard was submitted by IBM to The Open Group in 2003.
A backward compatible but significant extension of the specification was released in February 2016.