WBEM is a proposal for a new type of management architecture known as HMMA, the HyperMedia Management Architecture.

HMMA consists of two parts, the schema and the protocol.

The HyperMedia Management Schema (HMMS), is a design of how managed objects are structured and how they are interrelated.

The HyperMedia Management Protocol (HMMP) is a communications protocol that is effectively SNMP running over HTTP.

HMMP can also be structured to function with other management protocols, such as the Desktop Management Interface (DMI), which is the network management protocols for desktop PCs created by the Desktop Management Task Force.