BEAVERTON, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, major industry leaders who are invested in the future of the Internet of Things, announced they will unify as the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF), an entity whose goal will be to help unify IoT standards so that companies and developers can create IoT solutions and devices that work seamlessly together. Via cross-industry collaboration, the OCF will work towards unlocking the massive opportunity of the future global IoT segment, accelerate industry innovation and help all developers and companies create solutions that map to a single, open IoT interoperability specification. Ultimately, with OCF specifications, protocols and open source projects, a wide-range of consumer, enterprise and embedded devices and sensors from a variety of manufacturers, can securely and seamlessly interact with one another.
The OCF unifies the entirety of the former Open Interconnect Consortium with leading companies at all levels – silicon, software, platform, and finished-goods – dedicated to providing this key interoperability element of an IoT solution.
The OCF’s vision for IoT is that billions of connected devices (appliances, phones, computers, industrial equipment) will communicate with one another regardless of manufacturer, operating system, chipset or transport. With the OCF fulfilling this promise, anyone – from a large technology company to a maker in their garage - can adopt the open standards of OCF to innovate and compete, helping ensure secure interoperability for consumers, business, and industry.
About Open Connectivity Foundation
Billions of connected devices (devices, phones, computers and sensors) should be able to communicate with one another regardless of manufacturer, operating system, chipset or physical transport. The Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) is creating a specification and sponsoring an open source project to make this possible. OCF will unlock the massive opportunity in the IoT market, accelerate industry innovation and help developers and companies create solutions that map to a single open specification. OCF will help ensure secure interoperability for consumers, business, and industry. For more information, please visit www.openconnectivity.org.
Supporting Quotes
ARRIS
“We are excited to be a part of this revolutionary group of leaders and look forward to bringing a standardized and powerful solution to both Service Providers and Retail as more devices and IoT services enter the market.” – Charles Cheevers, CTO, Customer Premises Equipment.
CableLabs
“CableLabs is all about interoperability and scale economics. We are extremely supportive of the unification of these efforts and believe that it will allow the broader industry to better leverage their equipment, services and infrastructure. This greatly expands the Internet of Things footprint for cable operators, their suppliers, and most importantly their subscribers.” – Ralph Brown, Chief Technology Officer
Cisco
"OIC’s leadership and expansion to OCF is a step forward as these two leading standards bodies are unified to achieve a common set of protocols and certifications for IoT. OCF will help enable developers and industries around consumer, SP, enterprise, industrial to leverage promise of IoT in a scalable and secure manner.” – John Oberon, Vice President, IoT Software
Electrolux
“The Open Connectivity Foundation will create significant value for consumers by paving the way for an interoperable future. We’re well on our way to a truly smart home, and this will only happen when appliances can freely communicate with a wide range of products. This important move takes us one step closer to realizing that vision, by widening our existing collaboration initiatives to an even larger number of global brands.” -- Jan Brockmann, Chief Operations Officer
GE Digital
“Breaking down the barriers of technology silos and supporting better integration of these solutions and devices will be key to advancing the Industrial Internet of Things. GE is excited to join together with other organizations to create the standards that will help enable interoperability in the future.” – Greg Petroff, Chief Experience Officer
Intel
“We believe in a future where all of the devices in our lives are connected to enable ways of living and working that we can’t even imagine today. The only way to unlock the unlimited possibilities for innovation in the Internet of Things is to unify our work with industry peers. This collaboration is an exciting step in that direction.” – Doug Fisher, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Software and Services Group
Microsoft
“The OCF will help consolidate industry attention and create opportunity, via an agreed upon set of protocols that move the world forward. We are designing Windows 10 to be the ideal operating system and Azure to be the best cloud companion for Things, and for both of them to interoperate with all Things. Windows 10 devices will natively support the new OCF standard, making it easy for Windows to discover, communicate, and orchestrate multiple IoT devices in the home, in business, and beyond. We look forward to seeing the innovation this new standard will enable for all customers and the endless opportunities it will create for developers.” – Terry Myerson, EVP, Windows and Devices Group
Qualcomm
“Qualcomm has pursued the goal of open interoperability from the beginning. We helped develop the AllJoyn framework to drive this goal, and now we look forward to collaborating with leading IoT-focused companies to form the OCF for precisely the same reason. We look forward to achieving the IoT vision we all share.” – Michael Wallace, President of Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Inc. (a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated)
Samsung
"OIC has been working to develop a standard specification for IoT devices, and at the same time developing IoTivity as an open source reference implementation. We welcome these leaders in their fields to OCF, which we believe will become the most diverse global organization developing IoT standards and code." – SeungHwan Cho, Executive Vice President and Deputy Head of Software R&D Center
