the thus determined conversion at operation 1270 the cross connect module determines and saves relationship information for the control instruction the source management interface and the api of the destination hardware resource for use in converting a reply message on the return path at operation 1350 of fig7 at operation 1280 the cross connect module forwards the thus converted control instruction to the api of the destination hardware resource the conversion performed at operation 1260 may be a one to many conversion and may involve adding controls and changing parameters and values as necessary reference is made to fig7 which is a simplified flowchart of a method performed by cross connect module 235 of fig5 for converting a reply message received from a hardware api so as to conform with a protocol of a destination management interface in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention at operation 1310 the cross connect module monitors a reply message intended for a destination management interface received from the api of a source hardware resource at operation 1320 the cross connect module identifies the destination management interface as shown at operation 1330 if the source hardware resource uses a standard api and the destination management interface uses a standard protocol then the cross connect module forwards the reply message to the destination management interface without conversion at operation 1340 otherwise at operation 1350 the cross connect module accesses the relationship information saved at operation 1270 of fig6 and uses the relationship information to determine the conversion required from the api of the source.