Open Platform 3.0™ Snapshot – Introduction

 

Objective

The Open Platform 3.0 Standard will enable agile, secure, reliable, interoperable, and manageable multiple-technology solutions within and across enterprises.

It will do this by designating a set of common platform services that support the integration and interoperability of cloud computing, mobile computing, social computing, big data analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT) computing paradigms, technologies, infrastructures, and applications across enterprises.

The standard will:

  • Define the naming convention, description, and compositional structure of platform services at an architectural level of abstraction
  • Define usage constraints of applicable platform services
  • Advance the vision of Boundaryless Information Flow™ by establishing platform services that are standards-based, loosely coupled, accessible, secure, reliable, scalable, and manageable
  • Support the emergence and optimization of new functional capabilities, business processes, architectures, and systems design patterns that would be difficult to achieve utilizing any single technology
  • Establish guidelines, references, and exemplary practices that assist in the understanding of ecosystems and solutions that are based on Open Platform 3.0 and are not bound by any stakeholder’s proprietary implementation approach or technologies
  • Support the notation of vertical and horizontal integration by providing recommendations on the use of Open Platform 3.0 platform services for development, test, and production environments

Overview

The Open Platform 3.0 Standard focuses on new and emerging technology trends and computing paradigms converging with each other and leading to new business models and system designs. These trends currently include:

  • Cloud computing
  • Mobility
  • Social networks and social enterprise
  • Big data analytics
  • The Internet of Things (networked sensors and controls)

Other technologies may be taken on board as the standard develops.

These convergent forces – united by the growing consumerization of technology and the resulting evolution in user behavior – offer the potential to create new business models and system designs. However, they also pose architectural issues and structural considerations that must be addressed for businesses to benefit.

Platform has traditionally been used to describe a single technology environment for a specific domain. Platform architecture models exist individually for domains such as cloud, mobile computing, social media, data analytics, and the Internet of Things. Such platforms currently tend to be used for creating organization or domain-specific information systems, which signifies that platforms mainly facilitate and create vertical integration. The collection of these individual platforms that conform to the Open Platform 3.0 Standard will in combination provide new capabilities for performing horizontal integration through use of open interoperability standards and best-practices.

The eventual Open Platform 3.0 Standard will state requirements for platforms, including that a platform shall provide the capabilities stated in Chapter 3: Platform Capabilities. It will also state further requirements for how a platform shall provide those capabilities, and for how it shall interface to other platforms so that the combination provides those capabilities.

Conformance

This is a Snapshot, not an approved standard. Do not specify or claim conformance to it.

Readers are advised to check The Open Group website for any conformance and certification requirements referencing the Open Platform 3.0 Standard.

Normative References

The documents referenced in this section contain material that must be understood and used to implement the Open Platform 3.0 Standard.

At the time of publication, the editions indicated were valid. All standards are subject to revision, and parties to agreements based on this standard are encouraged to investigate the possibility of applying the most recent editions of the standards listed below.

Terminology

For the purposes of the Open Platform 3.0 Standard, the following terminology definitions apply:

Can Describes a possible feature or behavior available to the user or application.
May Describes a feature or behavior that is optional. To avoid ambiguity, the opposite of “may” is expressed as “need not”, instead of “may not”.
Shall Describes a feature or behavior that is a requirement of the standard. To avoid ambiguity, “must” is not used as an alternative to “shall”.
Shall not Describes a feature or behavior that is an absolute prohibition of the standard.
Should Describes a feature or behavior that is recommended but not required.
Will Same meaning as “shall”; “shall” is the preferred term.

Future Directions

This Snapshot builds on the first Snapshot towards creating a complete description, which will be refined over time resulting in the recommended standard.

The Open Platform 3.0 Forum intends to release further snapshots as development of the platform proceeds, prior to the publication of the first standard description of Open Platform 3.0.

These Snapshots are indications of what the platform might be, and invitations for input and comment. The Forum will develop the platform in the light of such input and in accordance with the evolving views of its members. This and succeeding Snapshots are not guaranteed to be consistent with each other or with the eventual standard. They should not be used in procurement specifications by customers or in claims of conformance by vendors.

⇒ Definitions