Video summary
Steve Nunn outlines The Open Group's recent trajectory as one of steady growth and strategic expansion, emphasizing a commitment to maintaining core values while adapting to new technological landscapes. Over the past year, the organization has successfully increased its membership and certified individuals, launching new product certifications that reinforce its mission. A significant milestone in 2025 was the introduction of two entirely new groups: the Open Digital Transformation Forum (ODXF) launched in July and the Industrial Advanced Nuclear Consortium (IANC) introduced later that year. These initiatives tackle distinct yet critical topics, demonstrating the organization's ability to diversify its scope while continuing to deliver meaningful work into 2026 and beyond.
The central theme driving The Open Group's evolution is the efficient adoption of new technologies and collaboration tools without compromising the stability and neutrality that members rely on. While the fundamental role of bringing people together to solve business problems through open standards remains unchanged, the methods have shifted significantly over the last three decades. Thirty years ago, the organization was primarily focused on IT and UNIX technologies, but today it operates at the intersection of business and technology across diverse sectors such as energy, petrochemicals, process automation, and military sensors. This expansion reflects a deliberate effort to stay relevant by listening to member needs and providing them with the latest tools to facilitate their work effectively.
A defining characteristic that has enabled The Open Group's longevity is its unwavering neutrality, which fosters trust among competitors who come together to create industry-leading standards rather than engaging in market rivalry. This neutral environment allows both industry players and government entities to collaborate on complex challenges that other consortia might not address. Steve Nunn stresses that creating standards must always be driven by genuine business needs and practical applications, rejecting the notion of developing standards merely for their own sake. The organization's success relies on ensuring that every standard created has rigor, meaning, and a clear motivation for stakeholders to participate in its development.
Looking ahead, The Open Group plans to build upon its thirty-year foundation of successful work products and well-regarded certification programs by exploring new frontiers in standardization. A key area of future focus is the development of "executable standards," which include reference implementations that make it easier for organizations to adopt and utilize these standards immediately. The ultimate goal remains consistent with the organization's history: to ensure that the standards they create are valuable enough to be adopted widely in the marketplace and effectively solve the specific business problems they were designed to address. By continuing to evolve their approach while staying true to their core principles, The Open Group aims to remain a trusted platform for global collaboration and innovation.
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Key priorities for The Open Group over
the past year, um,
we've it's basically been more of the
same. Uh, we've been growing as an
organization for a number of years now.
Uh, more members, more individuals
certified under our various programs.
Uh, even have launch of some new product
certifications. So, it's it's keep doing
what we're doing. Um, an important part
of that is is bringing people together,
uh, getting them to collaborate in a
safe and a neutral environment. And, uh,
driving them towards, uh,
getting finished on standards, guides,
white papers, whatever it is that
they're working on.
2025 was a big [music] year for us. We
were able to continue making progress in
all our existing areas.
But, we also managed to introduce two
brand new groups into The Open Group.
The ODXF, the Open Digital
Transformation Forum.
Uh, we launched that in July. And then,
a bit later in the year, I think it was
October, we launched the IANC, which is
the Industrial Advanced Nuclear
Consortium.
Both doing very important work. Uh, both
tackling very different topics.
Uh, and so, they're both very new,
but we can look forward to, uh, them
delivering work and continuing to grow
as we move forward in 2026 and beyond.
>> The needs of our membership have largely
remained consistent, actually, in terms
of what they are looking to the Open
Group to provide.
But where the change has been is
obviously the adoption of new
technologies and collaboration tools. As
we all face the the rate of progress in
technology and the rate of change, we
have to keep up with that. And of
course,
uh we are running a business that
brings people together and facilitates
them working on standards, guides, white
papers, etc. So we want to provide them
with the the the tools that are
available, the latest tools that are
available, that make them as effective
as they can be.
But essentially,
uh
we are still there providing
a a neutral um collaborative environment
for them to come together and work on
business problems that
can be solved, at least partly, through
open standards. That's fundamentally
hasn't changed.
I think if there's a defining theme
of what's going on in the Open Group
over the last year,
it would be
doing
what we do more effectively, more
efficiently, with more use of
technology.
I think it's very easy to
uh
get tempted into radical change in the
way we approach things that isn't really
the right direction for us. We need to
provide that stability and that uh
neutral environment for our members,
but at the same time
um give them the some of the latest
tools and approaches to
uh
to help them do their work. So, I think
um
in terms of a theme that the the common
theme uh through everything we do really
is to
try to create standards that are
meaningful, standards that have rigor,
standards that are practical, uh and
standards that help solve business
problems because
standards for standards' sake, uh
there's no point in doing those, nobody
needs to work on those. There has to be
a reason, and people have to have a
motivation to want to work on those
standards. So, uh it's really where
there's a business need, that's the
common theme.
It's interesting to look at how the role
of The Open Group has changed over these
three decades.
Um
in many ways, it hasn't
um in that we are still bringing people
together, we're still uh creating a
collaborative environment with tried and
tested policies and procedures that will
enable our members to work towards
meaningful standards.
Um in that sense, it it hasn't changed,
but perhaps the way that we do it has
changed. Obviously, greater use of uh
technology in our collaboration tools.
Uh that's been a significant change over
the years, and I think
it not so much the role changing, but I
think
what we are known for has changed. The
the brand of The Open Group now um
stands for uh quite a number of things.
Obviously, there's the TOGAF standard.
We're known for the uh work originally
in the in the UNIX area, but also more
recently for our work in all sorts of
different industries that
uh we would never have worked in 30
years ago. It was very much all about IT
and and technology then. We're far more
now in the
uh intersection of business and
technology, I would say. So, industries
such as the the energy industry and
petrochemicals
and the the whole process automation
field, uh military sensors, uh there's
there's so many things that we work on
now that uh nobody would have thought
about 30 years ago, that's for sure.
I think what's helped us remain relevant
for
30 years now is our our ability to
listen to our members, to be
customer-centric in that sense,
um and really try to
give
uh our members the tools that they need
to get their work done and the
environment that they need with the with
the guidance as well um from our staff
in terms of facilitation,
uh creating standards is obviously a
give and take. Um there are essentially
often times there are competitors in the
room. Um
in competitor Sorry.
Often times there are
organizations that outside The Open
Group are competitors in the
marketplace, but when they come to The
Open Group, they are there working
together to create the best standards
that they can create for the industry.
So,
I think um
uh
we've been able to stay relevant by
making sure we focused on those things.
And I think the neutrality aspect cannot
be underestimated. Um,
we have become a very trusted trusted
place to get some of these business
problems solved. And in a
perhaps in in some unusual areas, but
we've a specific I would give is we've
become a place where industry and
government can come together to work,
um, on things. And and, uh, that
is not the case for many organizations
out there, many consortia. But we, uh,
we have gained, uh, trust and a
reputation in that area. And the, uh,
the integrity and neutrality is really
what's enabled us to do that.
As we look forward, I think we've got a
lot to build from. We've got a a 30-year
platform of success and, uh, work
products that have come out of The Open
Group. Our certification programs are
very well known. And really, as I look
forward, I see more of the same. It's,
uh, it may be in different industries.
It may be, um,
different types of of standards. I can
see that, uh,
we would get more involved in executable
standards as we call them, or uh,
standards that are actually, for
example, have a reference implementation
that, uh, organizations can use to make
those standards
easily approachable.
Um, and I think it's all about finding
ways to get our
standards taken up in the marketplace.
The the ones that we have already and
the ones that we create
and really make those standards valuable
so that they do help solve the problems
that they were there to solve in the
first place.