diff --git a/client/driver/driver.go b/client/driver/driver.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9eae26607
--- /dev/null
+++ b/client/driver/driver.go
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+package driver
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"log"
+
+	"github.com/hashicorp/nomad/client/fingerprint"
+)
+
+// BuiltinDrivers contains the built in registered drivers
+// which are available for allocation handling
+var BuiltinDrivers = map[string]Factory{
+	"exec": NewExecDriver,
+}
+
+// NewDriver is used to instantiate and return a new driver
+// given the name and a logger
+func NewDriver(name string, logger *log.Logger) (Driver, error) {
+	// Lookup the factory function
+	factory, ok := BuiltinDrivers[name]
+	if !ok {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unknown driver '%s'", name)
+	}
+
+	// Instantiate the driver
+	f := factory(logger)
+	return f, nil
+}
+
+// Factory is used to instantiate a new Driver
+type Factory func(*log.Logger) Driver
+
+// Driver is used for execution of tasks. This allows Nomad
+// to support many pluggable implementations of task drivers.
+// Examples could include LXC, Docker, Qemu, etc.
+type Driver interface {
+	// Drivers must support the fingerprint interface for detection
+	fingerprint.Fingerprint
+}
diff --git a/client/driver/exec.go b/client/driver/exec.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..90f05c4ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/client/driver/exec.go
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+package driver
+
+import (
+	"log"
+
+	"github.com/hashicorp/nomad/nomad/structs"
+)
+
+// ExecDriver is the simplest possible driver. It literally just
+// fork/execs tasks. It should probably not be used for most things,
+// but is useful for testing purposes or for very simple tasks.
+type ExecDriver struct {
+	logger *log.Logger
+}
+
+// NewExecDriver is used to create a new exec driver
+func NewExecDriver(logger *log.Logger) Driver {
+	d := &ExecDriver{
+		logger: logger,
+	}
+	return d
+}
+
+func (d *ExecDriver) Fingerprint(*structs.Node) (bool, error) {
+	// We can always do a fork/exec
+	return true, nil
+}
diff --git a/client/driver/exec_test.go b/client/driver/exec_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1195b7396
--- /dev/null
+++ b/client/driver/exec_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+package driver
+
+import (
+	"log"
+	"os"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func testLogger() *log.Logger {
+	return log.New(os.Stderr, "", log.LstdFlags)
+}
+
+func TestExecDriver_Fingerprint(t *testing.T) {
+	d := NewExecDriver(testLogger())
+	apply, err := d.Fingerprint(nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("err: %v", err)
+	}
+	if !apply {
+		t.Fatalf("should apply")
+	}
+}