Open Comments: S3 Ep.7 - The Interoperability Imperative: Exploring the OSDU® Data Platform Stand...

Welcome back to Open Comments with me, Ash. Today we're joined by Curly Thomas, strategic product owner at Chevron and workg groupoup lead for standards and certification within the Openroup OSU forum. [music] We recently published a thought-provoking article with Curly on the OSU data platform standard version 1.0, [music] a milestone that promises greater interoperability, consistency, and confidence across the energy industry's data ecosystem. In his article, he describes version 1.0 zero [music] as a stable, predictable foundation designed to enable applications and platforms to work together more effectively across cloud providers and vendors. In this episode, we'll discuss the significance of the standard [music] Kurley's career journey, the role of lifelong learning, why collaboration remains [music] at the heart of innovation and what's next for the industry. Thank you for joining us today on Open Comments. Girly, [music] let's dive in, shall we? >> Absolutely. Thank you, Ash. Thank you. For listeners who may not know your background, can you tell us about your career journey and how you arrived at your current role as strategic product owner at Chevron? [music] So, first of all, thank you for having me today, Ash. I really appreciate the opportunity. I attended Howard University in Washington DC and I studied computer science and electrical engineering. Ironically, even though I work at Chevron today, I started my career in oil and gas at Exxon Mobile. I worked on systems and supported applications literally in the oil fields from Kansas down to King Ranch gas plant in South Texas. [music] I've managed and installed and supported systems on drilling rigs and production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and multiple countries AC across Africa. And how I got into standards is I was asked to create a standard template for how we submit wellboard schematics for wells drilled offshore. What I developed was adopted by the engineer to submit permits consistently to the government to the US [music] government. Uh, I've been at Chevron since 2012 and I've held roles as a well modeled specialist up to leading our enterprise data governance [music] team um, across Chevron and and so as part of one of our recent restructurings, [music] I moved into this role in our subsurface organization to streamline our data governance and standards across subsurface. I've been involved in multiple standards bodies across drilling and production processes and I also serve I also served on the board of PPDM for several years. So um you know I've been um in this space for a number of years. I'm very um fluent and familiar with standards and excited to continue this work. >> Thank you. And in your recent blog for the open group blog site, you described the OSDU data platform standard version 1.0 as a major milestone for the industry. For those that may be new to OSU, what problem is the standard solving that early approaches could not? Good question, Asha. You know, historically subsurface data has been stored in multiple proprietary applications and databases. uh the data has been locked behind vendor specific interfaces. It's been difficult and expensive to integrate. Uh it also requires custom point-to-point connections between applications. Uh it's been duplicated. You know, the data has been duplicated across organizations and workflows [music] and there's multiple copies everywhere and it's challenging to use consistently for analytics. Do I have the right version of the truth? It's it's difficult for AI and digital workflows. So what does this lead to? It leads to data silos. You're locked into certain vendors. There's high integration cost, slow application deployment, limited data reuse, difficulty scaling, digital transformation initiatives. And so the OSDU data platform standard version 1.0, zero. It actually solves the industry's data fragmentation problem by creating a stable, vendorneutral, interoperable [music] data foundation for subsurface and energy data. I think it enables applications, data and workflows to operate consistently across platforms. It reduces integration cost. It emulate it. It the plan and the intent is to [music] eliminate data silos. Um and this helps to minimize the vendor lock lock lock in that I mentioned and it also helps to accelerate analytics AI and digital transformation initiatives. So and lastly the last point on that I wanted to say was the standard also establishes a certification baseline so organizations know that a platform behaves according to agreed requirements that can reliably support um OSDU compatible applications. And so I think that's um uh the intent here. >> You write that version 1.0 establishes detailed consistent behaviors for a defined set of APIs and creates a predictable interface between applications and platform implementations. Why is that predictability so important? >> This is actually one of the most important questions that an executive can ask about the standard. See the value is not in the APIs themselves. It's in the business predictability they create. So think about when you get on an airplane. [music] So when you board a flight, you don't care how the jet engine works. What you care about is its predictability. You care that the plane departs when it's expected. The destin the destination is where you expect it. The pilot understands the controls. Safety [music] standards are consistent. And in our industry, because we've standardized those or or in that industry, should I say, because they've standardized those behaviors, airlines, airports, manufacturers, and passengers, [music] they all operate with confidence. So the intent of the OSDU data platform standard is to provide that same level of predictability [snorts] for energy data platforms. And moving on to industry impact, how will this standard change [music] the day-to-day experience of operators, technology providers, and software developers? [music] So for operators, the standard reduces integration cost and and increases flexibility. For technology providers, it creates a trusted certification baseline. For software developers, it provides a predictable platform on which to innovate. And for the industry, it transforms data interoperability from a custom project into [music] an expected capability. And I think that's how it changes the day-to-day experience. >> Mhm. Next. [music] Interoperability has long been a challenge in energy data management. What practical benefits can organizations expect [music] as adoption increases? So as the adoption of the OSDU data platform grows, the benefits compound because more operators, more software vendor vendors, more cloud providers and service companies began working from the same set of expected of expectations and behaviors. The practical benefits Ash extend far between technical interoperability and as adoption grows, organizations should expect lower integration costs again faster deployment of digital solutions giving you a diverse set of u um supplier choices, right? And then improve we also see improved collaboration. The hope is accelerated AI adoption and reduce technology risk. I think ultimately the OSDU data platform standard helps shift [music] industry effort away from connecting systems and toward generating business value from the data. And that's the goal here, right? Is to generate [music] more of that business value in an easier, more consistent way. >> Mhm. And following that question, certification is a major focus of the working group. How does certification help organizations build trust [music] and accelerate adoption? For me as certification is ultimately about turning trust into a measurable verifiable outcome. Without certification, every organization must independently determine whether a platform truly behaves as expected. So that means performing extensive testing, conducting due diligence and accepting a degree of uncertainty wherever a new platform, application or provider is introduced. And [music] so what the data uh what the data platform standard version 1.1 1.0 establishes uh is a well- definfined baseline of behaviors and conformance requirements [music] and the certification program it provides an objective mechanism to verify that imple implementations meet those requirements. So, so as part of uh certification, we're developing this verification matrix and the associated test scripts and and and and again certification transforms interoperability from a promise into proof. So, it gives operators confidence that platforms will behave consistently. It gives software vendors confidence that applications will run across implementations [music] and it gives the industry a trusted foundation for adoption and that's really critical there for the certification. So by reducing uncertainty and risk and again that's the goal here certification accelerates investment innovation and ecosystem growth [music] >> and looking ahead what does success look like one year after version 1.0 is released sorry pause and looking ahead what does [music] >> I'm sorry >> okay looking ahead what does success look like since [music] version 1.0 zero has now released. >> So again, it was really exciting to get the initial version of the data platform standard across the finish line. Really a lot of work went into that. And so I my thinking is that one year after the release, uh su success will not be measured by the publication of a standard document. You know, so we we were really excited to get it across the finish line. We we published the standard, [music] but it shouldn't be measured by that document. And they should be measured by confidence in the marketplace. Success means operators trusting certified platforms, vendors building applications against a predictable interface, reduced integr integration [music] effort, faster deployment of digital solutions, and in a growing ecosystem where interoperability is assumed rather than negotiated. So when organizations spend less time connecting systems and more time creating value from the data, we will know that the standard is succeeding. And that's what I'm that's what I'm looking forward to. >> And what are the most likely implementation challenges [music] for teams trying to align existing systems with the new standard? This is a critical question because the biggest challenge is not again the standard itself. It's the reality that most organizations already have years or decades of existing applications, data stores and business processes in place. and based upon the objectives of the OSDU data platform standard and the forum's emphasis on interoperability certification [music] and standardized platforms uh um the most the most likely implementation challenges fall into five categories I think and so just bear with me one second while I go through these I think the first one of the categories is legacy data and application complexity many existing systems they were not designed around common standards uh data may be stored in proprietary formats dup duplicated across systems or tightly coupled to specific applications. So different companies they'll need to determine what data should be migrated, what data should remain in legacy systems, how existing applications interact with the OSDU ecosystem, which integrations can be retired versus which can be maintained. And the standards goal is to reduce silos and provide a common framework for organizations [music] and accessing data. But again those companies must first reconcile years of accumulated technical debt. And so the challenge is often or complexity rather than technology. [music] That's kind of one point. And then the the another point I want to make is data quality and standardization. Interoperability depends on more than platform connectivity. It also depends on having well-governed data. Many organizations discover that they have inconsistent naming convictions, again, duplicate records, missing metadata, varying interpretations of business, business concepts, historical data quality issues, and and [music] I can go on and on about data quality. And I think the standard enables common access patterns [music] and behavior. But poor quality, I'm sorry, but poor but poor quality data remains poor quality data until governance and stewardship processes address it. And so that that's not the standard, right? That's something companies have to address themselves. Another point I'd like to make is or organizational change comment uh I'm sorry, organizational change management. One of the most underestimated challenges is the [music] is changing how people work. Again, historically teams own their own data and in their own data repositories. Applications [music] operate independently. uh processes may have evolved around local requirements and then applications have just been bolted on and bolted on and bolted on. [music] So the OSDU vision promotes shared interoperable and I keep using that word uh [music] interoperable reusable data and a common foundation across the ecosystem. [music] What this requires again is companies having new governance models, clear data ownership, crossf functional collaboration and I think one of the most important [music] things and under served is executive sponsorship that's a critical path in order for this to be successful. >> Mhm. >> So and finally I guess adoption is much about people challenge as it is around as it is a technology challenge. >> Mhm. and pivoting to the power of collaboration. One of the most interesting aspects of the OSD forum is that competitors, operators, cloud providers and software vendors all work together. What makes that collaboration possible? According to you, I think Ash this is the probably the most important story behind OSGU. On the surface, it seems surprising that competitors, operators, cloud providers, software companies uh would collaborate so closely. In reality, that collaboration is possible because member companies recognize they all benefit from solving a common industry problem that no one can solve alone. [snorts] You know, data fragmentation and the lack of interoperability. That's the problem no one can solve by themselves. Even in in in the certification work group that I lead, we have participants from Microsoft, AWS, uh SLB, we have uh other companies that are you know vendor companies and so we are all working together uh to to to expand the standard. So every stakeholder has experienced the cost of fragmented data ecosystems. Operators face high integration cost and slow digital transformation. Vendors must support multiple proprietary environments. Cloud providers need a consistent platform on which customers can build. Service companies spend significant effort moving and transforming data between systems. The forum was created to provide a common foundation that reduces those inefficiencies and actually enables better access to data across the industry. So looking forward to uh you know how we continue to grow and evolve >> together. >> That's great. and you've said publicly that you'd like to see [music] OSU become the standard for oil and gas data. What will it take to achieve that vision or is it already being achieved? I I think this is the get this what this is what gets to the heart of OSDU's long-term mission. So if OSDU is to become the standard for oil and gas data success in my opinion requires more than just publishing standards and certifications. It requires the industry to view OSDU as essential infrastructure. Think about like TCP IP for those of you who understand technology and are technical. How TCPIP or an IP as we all know became the foundation of the internet. There was there were multiple technologies around that but TCPIP became the foundation for the internet or if you think about GPS right GPS became the foundation for navigation everybody know associates GPS [music] with navigation the standard must deliver business value right measurable measurable business value ultimately standards win because they solve business problems better than the [music] alternatives operators you know as a result of this uh when I say I want OSD to become the standard for oil and gas. I think operators must experience faster project delivery, lower integration costs, reduce vendor lock in, quicker deployment of AI and analytics uh and better access to data and reuse. And so [music] I think that's important. And if leaders consistently see better outcomes from their OSDU investments, adoption will accelerate. I mean quite naturally in my opinion. So the mission emphasizes should I say the OSD you mentioned mission emphasizes better and faster adoption uh better and faster business decisions through ex let me pause okay I'm going to pick up after when I said better data reuse better data access and reuse Uh okay, coming back in three, two, one. If leaders consistently see better outcomes from OSDU aligned investments, adoptional will accelerate naturally. The OSDU mission emphasizes better and faster business decisions through accessible, interoperable, trusted, and deployable data. So for OSDU to become the industry standard Ash software providers need to see OSDU compatibility as a commercial advantage. Developers need confidence that apps built once can be deployed broadly. Platform behavior is predictable. Customers increasingly demand OSDU compatibility compatibility. >> Thank you. And what have you learned about building consensus among organizations that often have very different priorities? Wow, that's a tough one, Ash. And I think uh uh consistent building is probably the hardest part of all of this to be to to to be quite honest. First of all, OFDU is a volunteer organization. We all do this in our spare time because we see the value of what this can bring to the industry. I've seen this work and I've been a part of other successful standard bodies in the past. It just takes time and commitment. It also requires member companies to commit resources. It can't just be Curly Thomas from Chevron developing an industry standard. I am asking all the curly thomases from Exxon, from Shell, from SLB, from Hallebertton, [music] Aspentech, Vidian, AWS, Microsoft and all the other operators, service providers, software vendors, and cloud providers to come and join us. And I think uh you know, having done this, I've learned so much that [music] it's it's it's a commitment, right? You you've got to be committed to see it through. If you understand and see that the long-term vision and value and how it can impact what we do in our own companies, then we have to be committed through the journey. I'm pivoting to [music] community building. The OSU forum has grown significantly since its founding and continues to evolve as a community. What has impressed you most about the collaboration you've seen so [music] far? So the community is over 200 members strong and it's a sustained number of members. And so what I've been impressed about that is, you know, um a lot of these efforts see a significant drop in membership when some of these companies don't see the results immediately. But not OSDU. In fact, it continues to grow. What I like hearing is on our uh regular calls, they talk about, hey, we have such and such as a new member who joined. we have such and such company to join. And so while things are not perfect and there are many opportunities, I'm impressed with how we continue to evolve. >> And for someone considering contributing to an industry forum or standards effort, what would you tell them about the value of participating? Uh, this is a question I feel strongly about because I've seen firsthand how participation in standards efforts like OSDU can create value far beyond the technical deliverables. I would say that for anyone considering contributing to an industry forum or standards initiative initiative. My advice would be this. [music] Don't view participation as volunteering time to write standards. View is view it as an opportunity to shape the future direction of your industry. I think that's critical. And so you help and what you're doing is you're helping solve problems bigger than just in your company and many of the many of of the industry's toughest challenges uh interoperability again data fragmentation digital transformation AI readiness and workforce [music] efficiency can't be solved by one operator by one vendor by one cloud provider alone. It takes all of us together solving these problems. And now [music] the future of energy data. As you think about the next 5 years, what developments in data platforms, standards [music] or AI are you most excited about? So this is this is uh a question that really excites me about um you know where we're going and I believe we're at the beginning of a fundamental shift in how the energy industry works with data and and that's so again hear me out that's my opinion. So I think that you know in the next 5 years there's three development areas that stand out one everyone knows this it's the convergence of standards and AI. So today most AI projects spend a significant amount of effort finding, cleaning, organiza, organizing and understanding data before any value is created. What I like about the combination of OSDU and AI is the possibility of moving from data preparation being the bottleneck to domain expertise becoming the differentiator. So the OSDU data platform standard was designed to create a stable a stable interoperable foundation with consistent behaviors and accessible data. The forum's vision to uh emphasizes accessible, interoperable, sharable, trusted and deployable data. And as standards mature and and and adoption grows, or should I say as the standard matures and adoption grows, AI systems will be able to operate against more consistent data structures and metadata. In my opinion, that should allow subsurface professionals to spend more time evaluating opportunities and less time searching for information. And that's always been one of the goals of the forum. And so that's exciting because for many years we focused on managing data, right? And so the next 5 years that may be about enabling systems to understand and reason over the data in ways that directly support business [music] decisions. We talk about business outcomes like what are the business outcomes we are uh focused on and not [music] just you know uh managing data. The other thing is the emergence of truly portable energy applications. One of the [music] original goals too was to create a technology agnostic foundation where applications could operate different platform implementations. So I believe the industry's approach is is at a point where applications become more portable, integration becomes less expensive, vendor lock in decreases, innovation [music] cycles accelerate, and that's what we're looking for is more innovation at a faster pace. So in other words, organizations may increasingly choose sol solutions based on which application creates the most [music] value rather than which application can we afford to integrate and that's healthier for for for everyone involved and the ecosystem as a whole. >> Mhm. And where [music] do you see the greatest opportunities for the OSU community moving forward? I think the the the biggest opportunities for the OSDU community community is to transform OSDU from a data platform into the trusted foundation for digital workflows and AI across the energy industry. You know, we've largely [music] proven that interoperability is possible. The next step is proving that interoperability delivers measurable business uh measurable business value. [music] If the community can combine open standards, certification, enterprise AI and workflow modernization into a seamless ecosystem, I think OSDU can become the for energy data what the internet became for information, a common foundation that enables innovation at scale. And that's really what I believe. >> Mhm. and what barriers still need to be overcome to unlock the full potential of open data ecosystems. >> You know, I was waiting for you to ask me a question about our challenges. Uh, you know, this is an important question because the technology is no longer the primary constraint. [music] In many ways, the industry has proven that open platforms, common schemas, and interoperable APIs are achievable. I think the bigger challenge is creating the conditions for widespread adoption and sustained value creation. If I look across the community, Ash uh and I look at the discussions, the standards work, certification efforts and the adoption initiatives, I see several barriers that still need to be overcome and one is data quality and governance. And I think you know enough said there. I think we all understand that barrier. I think adoption and ecosystem participation uh our ecosystems become valuable when enough participants contribute. So [music] what we need is more participation uh to help us get across the uh the finish line. So I think the standard only becomes powerful when operators request it, vendors support it, developers build against it, service providers integrate with it. I think that's really a critical path for us as we continue to evolve in the forum. Then there's certification and trust. One of the biggest uh remaining opportunities and barriers is creating a trusted certification ecosystem. But I'm proud to say that we are on that journey and um we are building out again I think I mentioned this earlier uh a solid verification matrix with the associated test scripts and again certification is just that mechanism for uh the ability to build customer trust ensure application compatibility uh validate performance and enable predictable platform behavior and so and again my goal is this the industry must reach a point where when we say [music] OSDU certified it clear it carries clear and well understood meaning and that's that's really what we're hoping to achieve in this uh in the standards [music] and certification work group and then one other point I want to make is de demonstrated business value so open ecosystems succeed when they solve business problems uh se several artifacts uh emphasize measurable outcomes like reduced well planning time reduced integration effort uh faster workflows reduced technical debt um and Then of course improved operational efficiency. So I [music] think that's those are some of the barriers that are still out there and but I feel like we can overcome those and you know the the community just must continue demonstrating real return on investment you know real solid production use cases operational improvements you know the [music] big thing is AI right so AI enablement and then also time and cost savings [music] so again business leaders invest in outcomes they don't invest in standards and I think that'll [music] help us get there >> and For our listeners who are interested in learning more about the OSU data [music] platform standard version 1.0 and the work the OSU forum, please visit the open groupoup OU forum [music] and to read Curly's article two. We'll also add all the links in the description box below. Now for our closing question, what is one idea, principle or lesson that you hope listeners take [music] away from this conversation? >> So again, thank you for having me today, Asher. It's really been a joy. um discussing this one of my favorite topics here with you. I think OSDU can be a gamecher for our industry. But in order to get the win, we need more companies to join us on this journey. [music] If we do this together, we get there faster. So, I'm calling on those of you who are not members [music] and to get off the sidelines, as we say, and get into the game. And I also want to invite those of you listening to come and join us at the uh OSDU forum summit in Houston, Texas during the week of October 26th through 30th. Uh I think uh registration is already open now and um you can actually jo um find that on the open groups website. But again, the summit is [music] in Houston during the week of October 26th through 30th. And then come see some of the real world presentations on how the platform is being implemented across the energy industry from operators, software companies, and the different cloud providers. You can also learn more about the platform. You can get updates on all the different work groups and meet others like yourself and learn more about their OSDU journeys. >> Thank you, Curly. Thanks so much for joining us today on the Open Comments podcast and for sharing your insights and standards, collaboration, innovation, and the future of energy data. To our listeners open comments community, we hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we have. And we look forward to bringing more topics into the fold just like this [music] one to you very soon. Thank you. Stay safe and happy listening. >> [music] >> Heat. Hey, Heat. [music]