The Open Group Trusted Technology Provider Forum (OTTF)™ (Wednesday)

Objective of Meeting

The Wednesday sessions were focused on outreach and market adoption strategies for the O-TTPS Accreditation Program. Given that one of The Open Group tag lines has been “Making Standards Work”™, the objective of this session was to strategize on how the OTTF and The Open Group staff can help assure that there is market adoption for the Forum deliverables:

• O-TTPS Standard, released in April of this year
• The O-TTPS Accreditation Program, which was submitted for Company Review earlier this year and just approved by The Open Group Governing Board and The Open Group Executive Management Team

Summary

The session was a brainstorming exercise, which focused on the various constituent groups (international governments, large commercial customers, providers, component suppliers, integrators, other standards organizations). The exercise highlighted what information they might need collectively and what might be specific to each constituency to help them better understand the value proposition for their particular involvement in the OTTF or with the O-TTPS Accreditation Program.

OTTF Update

The O-TTPS is an open standard containing organizational guidelines, requirements, and recommendations for integrators, providers, and component suppliers to enhance the security of the global supply chain and the integrity of Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products. This standard if properly adhered to will help assure against tainted and counterfeit products throughout the COTS ICT product life cycle encompassing the following phases: design, sourcing, build, fulfillment, distribution, sustainment, and disposal.

The O-TTPS Accreditation Policy and Accreditation Requirements, which were submitted for Company Review earlier this year and just approved by The Open Group Governing Board and The Open Group Executive Management Team, are available now at the links below. There is currently a pilot underway for members only, but any organization can download the standard and the approved accreditation program documents now to begin preparing for conformance, assessment, and accreditation. The public launch date is planned for the Nov-Dec 2013 timeframe, when the program will be available to all component suppliers, providers, and integrators around the globe.

The OTTF Outreach and Harmonization efforts are continually working with governments and other standards organizations to harmonize our work where appropriate and engage global constituents so that “Providers can Build with Integrity and Customers can Buy with Confidence”™.

If you are interested in participating in the OTTF, please contact Mike Hickey at: m.hickey@opengroup.org or Chris Parnell at: c.parnell@opengroup.org.

Outputs

The results were captured in a draft working document, which establishes what a package of information might need to contain and what the priorities and timing might be for rolling out the market adoption activities for the various constituents.

Next Steps

The brainstorming output will be brought to the OTTF Global Outreach and Standardization Harmonization (GOSH) Work Stream for further review and discussion. Some of the activities will need to be carried out by the OTTF members and others will be executed by The Open Group staff and marketing departments.

Links

• The OTTF current slide set, which includes background information, a description of the supply chain challenges, an overview of the O-TTPS (standard), the accreditation program, a “list” of the OTTF members, and a milestone chart with timeframes.
• The Open Trusted Technology Provider Standard – Mitigating Maliciously Tainted and Counterfeit Products V1.0, which was released in April 2013.
• The O-TTPS Accreditation Policy and the O-TTPS Accreditation Requirements that were recently approved.