Our vision
Figura 1
On paper, the adoption of open standards (standards that can be implemented by any supplier without breach of patent) is vital for defining a sound strategy for selecting the software platforms technologies to be adopted by any firm or organization. In actual fact:
- open standards provide a choice between several suppliers that will compete by offering better prices for the headings of both licences for runtime and development use and support and maintenance fees.
- while they do not assure an adequate level of support and maintenance (this depends rather on the quality of the support and maintenance services offered by the selected supplier), consolidated standards do provide a better guarantee in terms of product evolution and continuity than many proprietary products.
- most standardization processes are born of the intent to reach an agreement between suppliers and users about the definition of the best solutions to problems from a technical viewpoint.
Figure 2 shows standards-based technologies and components that are now viewed as part of the basic software concept. Aspects related to security and platform components administration that are considered to be embedded in all components are omitted. The standardization of technologies and components within the basic software platform is a process that has consolidated gradually throughout history. The higher up the components are in the diagram, the more recent the standardization effort is.
Figura 2
