OASIS Approves OData 4.0 Standards for an Open, Programmable Web
Axway, BlackBerry, CA Technologies, Citrix, IBM, Microsoft, Progress Software, Red Hat, SAP, SDL, and Others Enhance Open Data Protocol
17 March 2014 – The OASIS international open standards consortium announced the approval of the Open Data Protocol (OData) 4.0 and the OData JSON Format 4.0. These REST-based standards simplify the querying and sharing of data across applications for re-use in the enterprise, cloud, and mobile devices. With OData, information can be accessed from a variety of sources including relational databases, file systems, content management systems, and traditional web sites. OData 4.0 and the OData JSON Format 4.0 are now official OASIS Standards, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification.
OData provides a way to break down data silos and increase the shared value of data by creating an ecosystem in which data consumers can interoperate with data producers in powerful ways, enabling more applications to make sense of a broader set of data. Every producer and consumer of data that participates in this ecosystem can increase its overall value.
“OData 4.0 reflects some important lessons learned,” said Ralf Handl of SAP, co-chair of the OASIS OData Technical Committee. “In this new version, we’ve eliminated boundaries between isolated services, essentially moving from an approach of ‘structured data on the Web’ to a ‘web of structured data’ approach.”
“OData is the equivalent of ODBC for the Web. OData was always simple and intuitive, but version 4.0 applies the lessons that have been learned since the inception of OData into a clean streamlined standard,” added Ram Jeyaraman of Microsoft, who also co-chairs the OASIS OData Technical Committee. “OData 4.0 is the result of the collective handiwork of many talented people across many organizations who collaborated in a truly remarkable fashion to accomplish the common goal of creating a standard open data protocol to create and consume data services on the Web.”
OData began as an open project on the public OData site in 2009. OData producers, consumers and libraries (many of them open source) include Java, PHP, Drupal, Joomla, Node.js, .NET, SQL Server, MySQL, iOS, WP7, and Android. Statements of Use for OData were provided by IBM, Microsoft, and SAP as part of the OASIS Standard approval process.
Recently, the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) issued a formal recommendation for worldwide adoption of OData to help combat the proliferation of online child sexual abuse material. VGT believes the use of OData will enable much-need compatibility among law enforcement tools within the global community in managing illicit images and video regardless of vendor.
OData is offered for implementation on a royalty-free basis. Companies, non-profit groups, governments, academic institutions, and individuals are welcome to participate in the OASIS OData Technical Committee, which continues to advance the standard based on recommendations and feedback provided by the OData community.
Support for OData
BlackBerry
“Our enterprise customers have asked us to support OData for building their BlackBerry 10 applications whether they are connecting to SAP Gateway, Microsoft Sharepoint, or other Critical Business Data though the BlackBerry Enterprise Service. BlackBerry is thrilled to be able to offer enterprises the mobile friendly APIs whether they are developing with HTML5 or in our Native SDK, without sacrificing features,” said Gregg Ostrowski Senior Director Enterprise Developer and Technical Partnerships, BlackBerry.
CA Technologies
“This new version of OData strengthens the standard as a powerful and useful data source access mechanism,” said John Michelsen, CTO at CA Technologies. “The improvements to the data model and data types enables OData to further address the challenges and complexities of CRUD access using RESTful techniques. Leveraging this standard assists CA Technologies to develop improved technology platforms and more interoperable solutions to help our customers tackle their business challenges in DevOps, Security, and Infrastructure Management.”
Citrix
“There is a growing need for accessing data via well-defined and, whenever possible, open APIs,” said Shishir Pardikar, senior architect, Citrix. “As an enterprise software company, Citrix recognizes the value of this and has been working with other companies in the industry to define OData as a means for facilitating meaningful interactions between applications that leverage open standards like REST and HTTP. With the publishing of OData 4.0 as an OASIS standard, we are keen on seeing standards like this drive more interesting solutions through improved ‘mashability’ between systems.”
IBM
“I am pleased to see that the OData Protocol is now a standard.” said IBM Distinguished Engineer and CTO, Open Technology Kelvin Lawrence. “By using a protocol like OData that allows for the mixing and matching of data sources, the task of accessing different types of data is simplified enabling developers to quickly build related applications more easily.”
Microsoft
“In the ongoing rapid shift towards cloud based services, a standard open data protocol to create and consume data services on the Web is very important. Congratulations to the OASIS OData Technical Committee for successfully advancing OData v4 to an OASIS Standard. OData has become an important open data protocol for several products and cloud services from Microsoft to accomplish the goal of open data for the open Web. It’s encouraging to see numerous implementations across the industry, and this productive standards collaboration at OASIS,” said Scott Guthrie, Corporate VP, Cloud and Enterprise, Microsoft
Progress Software
“The importance of a data API that standardizes access for web and mobile devices cannot be overstated,” said Tony Fisher, VP of Data Integration and Collaboration at Progress. “With OData 4 we now have a mature and robust specification for making new sources of data connectivity possible, no matter where they are or how data sources are connected. As a market leader in Data Connectivity, OData is important extension to the Progress portfolio.”
Red Hat
“Red Hat is excited about the finalization of the OData v4 specification,” said Dr. Mark Little, VP Engineering at Red Hat. “The OData Technical Committee has made many improvements and additions making OData an extremely powerful, enterprise-capable, REST protocol. We are looking forward to implementing the specification in our own technologies as well as contributing to other open source projects.”
SAP
“OData is the primary technology used to access business data in SAP’s mobile and Web applications, such as SAP Fiori apps. It is also used by SAP partners and customers via support of it included in SAP HANA and SAP NetWeaver Gateway. Besides contributing substantially to the standardization of OData at OASIS, SAP has created and is leading two open source projects that implement the standard: Apache Olingo and Eclipse Ogee,” said Erich Karl Clauer, VP, Industry Standards and Open Source, SAP.
SDL
“We believe that access to the right content in the right context is essential today and open standards like OData are key to achieving this,” said Dennis van der Veeke, CTO of SDL. “The adoption of the Open Data Protocol as an OASIS standard will help pave the way where any data can be used simply, securely, and automatically, resulting in richer experiences, simpler interfaces and faster development times.”
Additional information
OASIS OData Technical Committee
OData JSON Format 4.0 OASIS Standard
About OASIS
OASIS is a not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information society. OASIS promotes industry consensus and produces worldwide standards for cloud computing, security, privacy, M2M, IoT, content technologies, business transactions, emergency management, and other applications. OASIS open standards offer the potential to lower cost, stimulate innovation, grow global markets, and protect the right of free choice of technology. OASIS members broadly represent the marketplace of public and private sector technology leaders, users and influencers. The consortium has more than 5,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries.
Press contact: Carol Geyer, OASIS Senior Director of Communications, carol.geyer@oasis-open.org, +1.941.284.0403