universal sovereignty Commons: 4/5

Open Standards Adoption

Also known as:

1. Overview

Open Standards Adoption is a pattern for building resilient value creation systems.

Problem: Building systems on proprietary, closed technologies creates vendor lock-in. This makes it difficult, costly, or even impossible to switch to a different provider, integrate with other systems, or innovate beyond the vendor’s roadmap. The value creation system becomes dependent on the vendor’s pricing, strategy, and long-term viability, reducing its sovereignty and resilience.

Context: You are choosing the foundational technologies for a new value creation system, including communication protocols, data formats, and platform APIs. You need to make architectural choices that ensure long-term flexibility, interoperability, and freedom from vendor lock-in.

2. Core Principles

Prioritize the use of open, consensus-driven, and widely adopted standards for all core components of the system. An open standard is a specification that is publicly available, has been developed and is maintained via a collaborative and transparent process, and can be implemented by anyone.

Key areas for open standards:

  • Data Formats: Use formats like JSON, XML, CSV, and Parquet instead of proprietary binary formats.
  • Communication Protocols: Use standards like HTTP, TCP/IP, SMTP, and XMPP.
  • Identity: Use standards like OpenID Connect (OIDC), SAML, and Verifiable Credentials (VCs).
  • APIs: Design APIs based on open specifications like OpenAPI (formerly Swagger) and GraphQL.
  • Cloud: Use standards like the Open Container Initiative (OCI) for containers and Kubernetes for orchestration.

3. Rationale

Adopting open standards is a strategic architectural decision that enhances sovereignty and resilience. It:

  • Prevents Vendor Lock-In: Enables you to switch vendors or components with minimal disruption.
  • Promotes Interoperability: Ensures that your system can easily communicate and exchange data with other systems, fostering a richer ecosystem.
  • Increases Longevity: Open standards are more likely to be supported over the long term than a single vendor’s proprietary technology.
  • Fosters Innovation: Allows you to leverage a wider community of developers and tools, rather than being limited to a single vendor’s ecosystem.

4. Consequences

  • Positive:
    • Greater architectural flexibility and freedom.
    • Reduced costs and switching barriers.
    • Larger talent pool and wider community support.
    • Future-proofs the system against vendor obsolescence.
  • Negative:
    • Open standards can sometimes lag behind the features of cutting-edge proprietary technologies.
    • Can sometimes be less opinionated, requiring more design and integration work.
    • “Open” can be a marketing term; it’s important to verify that the standard is truly governed by a neutral, non-profit body (e.g., IETF, W3C, CNCF).

5. Application Context

Best Used For:

  • Value creation systems requiring strong privacy and security foundations
  • Organizations operating in regulated environments
  • Systems handling sensitive data or requiring high trust

6. Known Uses

  • The Internet: The entire internet is built on a foundation of open standards (TCP/IP, HTTP, DNS, etc.) governed by bodies like the IETF.
  • The World Wide Web: Built on open standards like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, governed by the W3C.
  • Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF): A foundation that hosts and governs critical open standards for modern cloud computing, including Kubernetes and Prometheus.