Why open ecosystems are vital amidst global uncertainty

One of the greatest challenges in living memory, COVID-19 tested the power of global cooperation in problem solving in a way the world has never seen. Working together, scientists, governments, universities and the private sector around the globe seeking to fight the disease tapped on the Texas Advanced Computing Center’s (TACC) Frontera. As one of the world’s most powerful computers, it played a central role in mapping at the molecular and atomic level for the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the pandemic.

This large-scale collaboration was only made possible by the thousands of servers, nodes, software infrastructure and applications working together. Data and insights were securely shared with scientists, researchers and institutions from around the world. Each building upon the knowledge and resources of one another to find a treatment for the virus that shut down the world. Facing adversity together in a situation such as this shows how our collective potential is unlocked when we enable choice, trust and most of all, openness.

Overcoming difficulty together and tapping on each other’s knowledge and resources, be it in the case of pandemic research or technological innovation, enables us to grow as a global community. This is why I believe a powerful, open ecosystem will always triumph. From personal devices like mobile or desktop, infrastructure on-premises or in the cloud to the development of hardware or software, our ecosystem must be open.

Yet, with so much emphasis put on the importance of an open ecosystem, what does it mean and why does it matter?

Laying a foundation of openness and accessibility

An open ecosystem is crucial in laying a foundation that enables different technologies, developers and organisations to build upon one another’s discoveries, and work together to drive innovation. These exchanges increase our ability to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, as well as to seize new market opportunities. This is key in Australia. Our digitech ecosystem grew a massive 79% in five years to be worth $167 billion in the 2021 financial year and is expected to grow to $250 billion by the end of the decade.

To fully reap the benefits of this growth in the digitech ecosystem, we must nurture an open and democratised environment based on communities that encourage support and integration with different technologies, services and platforms. We also need to be able to rely upon agreed standards to reduce complexity and to access the resources required to accelerate, integrate and test at scale to enable these new innovations to market faster. When facing either a crisis or the need to pursue world-changing solutions, we need all the ideas, technologies and innovations we have to create something truly meaningful and impactful.

Open, transparent, and secure

Developers today have the challenge of creating applications that must work across a multitude of architectures and hardware. For example, a music streaming app that must be able to work across smartphones, smart TVs and tablets to offer a seamlessly integrated experience. Developers need tools that remove code barriers that allow interoperability across the breadth of technology interfaces, software stacks and hardware. Our approach is to both support open source and make our software open.

The Industry Fusion Foundation is another example. It aims to address the challenges of implementing industrial automation at scale through an open-source reference architecture that consists of a vendor-independent, interoperable set of solutions. These solutions reach from the factory floor to the cloud and consist of connectors that can attach a vast range of machines. Combined with orchestration and management tools, it enables prompt and flexible deployment of assets. This allows for quick integration of new tools, enhanced floor management and improved employee safety, as well as the ability to model proposed changes in the cloud without affecting production.

At Intel, our commitment to software is incredibly clear. With the guidance of around 19,000 software engineers, we help the industry move away from proprietary systems to adopt open computing and systems to enable developers to fast-track their development. Examples include our approach to AI development with the Intel Distribution of OpenVINO toolkit, designed to let developers optimise neural network inference to solve challenges with computer vision, speech recognition and natural language processing; as well as oneAPI, which is a cross-industry, standards-based platform that delivers a common developer experience no matter the architecture for which they are developing.

Nurturing industry-wide collaboration through open standards

Remember, back in day, when we had to add cards to the PC and reboot the system every single time we needed to connect peripherals like scanners, printers and PDAs? Each device had their own complicated installation procedure and ways of connecting to the PC. Understanding the problem both computer owners and device manufacturers were having due to the lack of a uniform, consistent way to connect to the PC, Intel formed the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) along with other industry players.

In addition to contributing innovation to enable higher speed connectivity and plug-and-play simplicity, an open industry standard was developed with a royalty-free intellectual property licensing obligation. This means that USB can be freely accessed, adopted and improved upon, allowing more innovation, faster time to market and improved convenience for businesses and users alike.

Today, USB is a ubiquitous feature in all PCs and many devices, making it easier for users around the world to connect everything from cameras to external hard drives. USB-IF consists of more than 800 member companies, and new technologies enabling faster and more power-efficient connectivity continue even today.

Using the same philosophy as open source and commitments to keep the software open, open standards allow developers to not be locked in a specific technology or vendor and streamline development and interoperability. This ultimately lowers costs and increases returns on investment, allowing developers to dedicate more of their time in solving real-world challenges and enabling them to quickly reach more users and scale their innovation.

An open future

Despite all the efforts in creating an open ecosystem over the years, we continue to see more and more software stacks becoming proprietary, verticalised systems designed to lock in developers. This way of operating can stifle developer opportunity and innovation.

Now, it is more important than ever to continue to nurture an open ecosystem with support for open source and keeping the software open — open standards, open policy and open competition to create a horizontal playing field where innovation can thrive.

Through building upon established systems, software and standards, we can accelerate development just as these pioneering scientists did with the data provided by the Texas Advanced Computing Center’s Frontera. As we embrace and encourage an open ecosystem, our global society will be prepared and ready for the uncertainties of the future, whatever may come next.

Image credit: iStock.com/gorodenkoff