The Future is Open
Why are we able to use a debit card from Canada to withdraw cash from an ATM in the United States? Why can we share a photo from an iPhone with a Samsung phone? Why can one brand of tires fit multiple cars? The answer is simple: Because each was designed with open standards in mind.
Open standards act as a guideline to keep technologies “open” and compatible with one another. These standards provide the requirements, specifications, guidelines, or characteristics that can be used consistently to ensure that technology is fit for purpose. This is why you are able to buy one box of batteries to power many of your household items, like your TV remote or video game controller.

In today’s connected world, creating technology that complies with open standards is imperative. Technology is developed so quickly that often a product or service that was introduced only a year ago can be superseded. Technology that allows for open standards enables the end users to choose their own “best of breed” stack to meet their ever-evolving needs and allows them to keep up with the fast-paced technology landscape.
Let me explain. Having worked in IT strategy, my team and I would spend countless hours making IT decisions and applying technology that, if we weren’t careful, was already behind before we hit the “approved” button. As soon as the decision was made, there was inevitably something else released that was faster and more efficient or had superior features and functions. However, platform technology that is designed with an open standard in mind helps alleviate this challenge — decision makers can mix and match solutions from multiple vendors, providing a best-of-breed result.
My company, Veridium, has chosen to drive open standards for this very reason. Our biometric authentication platform was designed to act as a backbone that allows enterprises to keep in front of the market in terms of their consumption and adoption of new technology. Veridium provides a single authentication platform that allows companies to plug in all the relevant biometrics that meet their specific use cases.
Veridium designed its technology to meet the guidelines outlined in IEEE 2410, the Biometric Open Protocol Standard (BOPS). BOPS supplies a secure data access solution that provides legal non-repudiation — the who, when, and where of every digital transaction. At its core, BOPS is a biometric neutral protocol that allows for pluggable and interchangeable modules, including those that provide authentication, access control, authentication, role gathering, and auditing. To read more about IEEE 2410 and Veridium’s involvement, visit our website here.
Biometric choices should always be relevant to the circumstance. Voice, for example, is a great biometric choice for certain use cases or environmental needs, but not so great for others. Perhaps you use voice authentication to access your bank account. This may work at home or in your office, but if you are in the movie theater enjoying a film it obviously won’t be the right environmental choice. With Veridium, clients can deploy relevant biometric modalities in a primary or multi-factor authentication model, thereby offering deeper security and greater user experience.
In addition to providing vendor freedom technology that complies with open standards, coupled with strong market pressure, drives innovation. It forces vendors to create best-in-class solutions that will work on a variety of platforms. This benefits not only the consumer but the software industry as a whole by keeping the industry on its toes. And, the concept of interoperability can be applied to a variety of industries, from healthcare to finance to manufacturing and even construction. Bottom line — open standards are undoubtedly a good thing.
