diff --git a/core/store/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/store/StoreService.java b/core/store/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/store/StoreService.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a672f54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/store/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/store/StoreService.java
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+package org.onlab.onos.store;
+
+import com.hazelcast.core.HazelcastInstance;
+
+/**
+ * Bootstrap service to get a handle on a share Hazelcast instance.
+ */
+public interface StoreService {
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the shared Hazelcast instance for use as a distributed store
+     * backing.
+     *
+     * @return shared Hazelcast instance
+     */
+    HazelcastInstance getHazelcastInstance();
+
+}
diff --git a/core/store/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/store/device/impl/DistributedDeviceStore.java b/core/store/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/store/device/impl/DistributedDeviceStore.java
index 5f81aef..b8c1cdf 100644
--- a/core/store/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/store/device/impl/DistributedDeviceStore.java
+++ b/core/store/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/store/device/impl/DistributedDeviceStore.java
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
 import org.onlab.onos.net.device.DeviceStore;
 import org.onlab.onos.net.device.PortDescription;
 import org.onlab.onos.net.provider.ProviderId;
+import org.onlab.onos.store.StoreService;
 import org.onlab.util.KryoPool;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 
@@ -187,12 +188,15 @@
 
     // FIXME change to protected once we remove DistributedDeviceManagerTest.
     @Reference(cardinality = ReferenceCardinality.MANDATORY_UNARY)
+    protected StoreService storeService;
+
     /*protected*/public HazelcastInstance theInstance;
 
 
     @Activate
     public void activate() {
         log.info("Started");
+        theInstance = storeService.getHazelcastInstance();
 
         // IMap event handler needs value
         final boolean includeValue = true;
diff --git a/core/store/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/store/impl/StoreManager.java b/core/store/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/store/impl/StoreManager.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7f09f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/store/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/store/impl/StoreManager.java
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+package org.onlab.onos.store.impl;
+
+import com.hazelcast.core.Hazelcast;
+import com.hazelcast.core.HazelcastInstance;
+import org.apache.felix.scr.annotations.Activate;
+import org.apache.felix.scr.annotations.Component;
+import org.apache.felix.scr.annotations.Deactivate;
+import org.apache.felix.scr.annotations.Service;
+import org.onlab.onos.store.StoreService;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
+/**
+ * Auxiliary bootstrap of distributed store.
+ */
+@Component(immediate = true)
+@Service
+public class StoreManager implements StoreService {
+
+    private final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(getClass());
+
+    private HazelcastInstance instance;
+
+    @Activate
+    public void activate() {
+        instance = Hazelcast.newHazelcastInstance();
+        log.info("Started");
+    }
+
+    @Deactivate
+    public void deactivate() {
+        log.info("Stopped");
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public HazelcastInstance getHazelcastInstance() {
+        return instance;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/features/features.xml b/features/features.xml
index 9fb78d3..c9c72a90 100644
--- a/features/features.xml
+++ b/features/features.xml
@@ -10,9 +10,13 @@
         <bundle>mvn:com.google.guava/guava/18.0</bundle>
         <bundle>mvn:io.netty/netty/3.9.2.Final</bundle>
 
+        <bundle>mvn:com.hazelcast/hazelcast/3.3</bundle>
+        <bundle>mvn:com.eclipsesource.minimal-json/minimal-json/0.9.1</bundle>
+
         <bundle>mvn:com.esotericsoftware.kryo/kryo/2.24.0</bundle>
         <bundle>mvn:com.esotericsoftware/minlog/1.3.0</bundle>
         <bundle>mvn:org.objenesis/objenesis/2.1</bundle>
+        <bundle>mvn:de.javakaffee/kryo-serializers/0.27</bundle>
     </feature>
 
     <feature name="onos-thirdparty-web" version="1.0.0"
@@ -42,6 +46,13 @@
              description="ONOS core components">
         <feature>onos-api</feature>
         <bundle>mvn:org.onlab.onos/onos-core-net/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</bundle>
+        <bundle>mvn:org.onlab.onos/onos-core-store/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</bundle>
+    </feature>
+
+    <feature name="onos-core-trivial" version="1.0.0"
+             description="ONOS core components">
+        <feature>onos-api</feature>
+        <bundle>mvn:org.onlab.onos/onos-core-net/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</bundle>
         <bundle>mvn:org.onlab.onos/onos-core-trivial/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</bundle>
     </feature>
 
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 0d57c3f..0e51910 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -139,6 +139,11 @@
               <version>3.3</version>
             </dependency>
             <dependency>
+                <groupId>com.eclipsesource.minimal-json</groupId>
+                <artifactId>minimal-json</artifactId>
+                <version>0.9.1</version>
+            </dependency>
+            <dependency>
               <groupId>com.esotericsoftware.kryo</groupId>
               <artifactId>kryo</artifactId>
               <version>2.24.0</version>
diff --git a/utils/misc/pom.xml b/utils/misc/pom.xml
index f49f0fa..899edcf 100644
--- a/utils/misc/pom.xml
+++ b/utils/misc/pom.xml
@@ -35,6 +35,11 @@
             <artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
         </dependency>
 
+        <!-- TODO: do we still need this here? -->
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>com.eclipsesource.minimal-json</groupId>
+            <artifactId>minimal-json</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
         <dependency>
           <groupId>com.esotericsoftware.kryo</groupId>
           <artifactId>kryo</artifactId>