The Open Group

The Open Group is a global consortium that works to help businesses meet their goals by creating open, technology standards that are not controlled by any single company. It has more than 900 member organizations and offers many services. These include help with planning, managing projects, encouraging new ideas, doing research, creating standards, certification, and developing tests.

The group was created in 1996 when two other groups, X/Open and the Open Software Foundation, joined together. It is responsible for certifying the use of the UNIX trademark and publishing the Single UNIX Specification, which adds to the POSIX standards. The Open Group also creates and looks after the TOGAF standard, a well-known way for companies to organize their technology plans, called an enterprise architecture framework.

Members

The Open Group has over 900 members. These members include technology companies, buyers, and government agencies. Some well-known members are Capgemini, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, the United States Department of Defense, and NASA. Members are not required to use the standards created by the group.

Some of the top, or Platinum, members are:

1. DXC Technology, United States
2. Fujitsu, Japan
3. Huawei Technologies, China
4. IBM, United States
5. Intel, United States
6. OpenText, Canada
7. Shell, Netherlands

History

See also: X Window System § History

In the early 1990s, companies that made UNIX computers saw that fighting among themselves was hurting everyone. This opened the door for new competition from Microsoft. In 1993, a group called COSE tried to bring everyone together. Finally, in 1996, two big groups, the Open Software Foundation and X/Open, joined to form The Open Group. This brought together all the different parts of the Unix community.

In 1997, The Open Group took over responsibility for the X Window System, which helps manage computer graphics. In 1999, a new group called X.Org was formed to handle the X Window System, with The Open Group helping with management. In 2004, X.Org and The Open Group created the X.Org Foundation, which took control of the X Window System and its website.

Programs

The Open Group offers many helpful programs for checking if technology products and practices meet certain standards. Some of these include checks for POSIX, UNIX, and O-TTPS.

The Open Group also gives special certificates to people who know a lot about certain technologies. These include certificates for experts in tools and services, data science, technical skills, and more. They also help companies work together better and follow good practices.

Inventions and standards

The Open Group has created many important technology rules and guides to help businesses and technology work better together. Some of these include the ArchiMate Technical standard, the Call Level Interface which helped create ODBC, and the Single UNIX Specification. They also developed guides like TOGAF, which helps companies plan their technology use, and the Future Airborne Capability Environment for airplane technology.

Other useful standards they made are the Common Desktop Environment for computer interfaces, the Distributed Computing Environment which helped build DCOM, and the Open Information Security Maturity Model to help protect information. These rules make it easier for different technologies to work well together.