use XML::Simple;
use Data::Dumper;

my $ref = XMLin(\*DATA);
print Dumper $ref;

__DATA__
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<list>
  <item>
    <name>item_name_1</name>
    <working>yes</working>
    <uptime>5</uptime>
    <downtime></downtime>
  </item>
  <item>
    <name>item_name_2</name>
    <working>yes</working>
    <uptime>5</uptime>
    <downtime></downtime>
  </item>
</list>

##</code><code>##

$VAR1 = {
  'item' => {
    'item_name_1' => {
      'uptime' => '5',
      'downtime' => {},
      'working' => 'yes'
    },
    'item_name_2' => {
      'uptime' => '5',
      'downtime' => {},
      'working' => 'yes'
    }
  }
};

##</code><code>##

my $ref = XMLin(\*DATA,KeyAttr=>[]);

##</code><code>##

$VAR1 = {
  'item' => [
    {
      'uptime' => '5',
      'downtime' => {},
      'working' => 'yes',
      'name' => 'item_name_1'
    },
    {
      'uptime' => '5',
      'downtime' => {},
      'working' => 'yes',
      'name' => 'item_name_2'
    }
  ]
};

##</code><code>##

print $_->{name} for @{$ref->{item}};