It is a widely accepted principle that open, fair and free competition is desirable in most markets.

Certified Open is designed to help measure and encourage competition through the provision of a framework for evaluating technical and commercial lock-in where that may reduce the ability of suppliers to compete in the provision of software, hardware and services.

What is not frequently understood is that lock-in can come both from the purchase and adoption of proprietary solutions, but also from the restricted skills capability, either in-house or in local partners, that this can cause.

Lock-in to a single vendor or single architecture is a long-standing feature of the computing industry. Whether it is good or bad for the customer is for that customer to decide. Certified Open provides a means to detect and measure the lock-in that the customer may incur through the use of particular products. It is then for the customer to decide whether that is a factor to use in making deployment decisions.

Certified Open is designed to ensure the effective removal of constraints in terms of the openness of IT solutions – in short, the creation of freedom in infrastructure decisions through the removal of factors affecting supplier lock-in.

 Certified Open is targeted at all organisations (large and small) operating within ICT and represents strong value propositions for all stakeholders.

 
The key collaterals for each of these programs are two industry-agreed, highly granular, frameworks:-

• The Certified Open Products & Services Framework – that defines the characteristics products & services must achieve if they are to be seen as fully open; and

• The Certified Open Competency Framework – that defines the skills that IT Professionals should have in order to be proficient in the delivery of open solutions.

The core program has been designed for all user organisations and suppliers to ensure that they are following best standards in terms of product development/ procurement/ outsourcing by providing a framework in which all products, services and skills are provably open.  

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