OSSA Marks One-Year Anniversary Milestone With Accomplishments, Such As Laying The Groundwork For Improved Security And Safety

Open Security & Safety Alliance (OSSA), an industry body comprised of leaders, influencers, and innovative organizations from all facets within the security, safety, and building automation space, celebrated its one-year anniversary.

Enhancing security and Safety

Within its first 12 months, OSSA attracted 30+ members, ranging from device manufacturers, software developers, and system integrators to distributors and system on a chip (SoC) companies, helping lay the groundwork for improved security, safety, building automation, and business intelligence solutions.

“Through OSSA, we have competing and complementary institutions reaching across aisles and stepping outside of their brands, to work together to push our whole industry into a new, more prosperous, and efficient direction,” said Johan Jubbega, President of Open Security & Safety Alliance (OSSA).

Open security and safety ecosystem

We're truly pleased at the progress achieved in just our first year by establishing an open security and safety ecosystem"

Johan Jubbega adds, “We're truly pleased at the progress achieved in just our first year by establishing an open security and safety ecosystem comprised of 30+ renowned companies and having a market-changing digital marketplace and first commercially available video security camera offerings underway for year two, as the Alliance continues to provide guidance and interpretation of common standards and specifications to promote more intelligent, productive solutions for users.”

Currently, security and safety solutions are fragmented and there is no collaborative approach to systems working together for bigger-picture success. Large amounts of data are left untapped in siloed systems that through cooperation can instead be utilized for better living, safety, and security purposes.

Working with common vendor-agnostic OS

OSSA's mission is to work with market players so as to ensure that everyone starts from the same ‘recipe’, when it comes to the development, deployment, operation, and maintenance of products, software, and services.

The Alliance's vision is that the majority of the security and safety industry works with a common, vendor-agnostic operating system (OS) and IoT infrastructure and agrees to implement or adhere to common approaches defined for common challenges, such as data security, privacy, product performance and easy consumption of data across multiple solutions.

Collaborative digital marketplace

This will substantially fuel usability and trust when it comes to security and safety solutions that are built on the foundations set forth by OSSA. From there, companies can differentiate through apps, by way of a collaborative digital marketplace, similar to accessing/downloading/using applications between an app store and smartphones and other digital devices.

Already within its first year, OSSA member companies created the first common Technology Stack specification

Already within its first year, OSSA member companies created the first common Technology Stack specification, including the definition of a common operating system for video security devices. They also started to define the common approaches and establishment of a shared IoT infrastructure, including a digital marketplace.

Technology Stack specification

This framework allows the trapped and mostly unused data captured by any brand of device to be unleashed and available for a good purpose. It also reduces friction when conceiving, deploying, and maintaining security and safety devices, systems, and settings and inspires innovation by opening the doors to data interpretation and possibilities. This platform revolution that OSSA envisioned will benefit everyone involved.

Significant outputs from Alliance workgroups over the past 12 months include:

• Documentation of a common Technology Stack including the definition of a common vendor-agnostic OS.
• First description of a common market approach to data security and privacy.
• OSSA member, Security and Safety Things GmbH (SAST) realized the first version of its OS as set forth in the common Technology Stack defined by OSSA, enabling the creation of prototype cameras. Together with SAST's first open app store for security cameras, various innovative applications were showcased this year from ISC West 2019, IFSEC 2019, and GSX 2019. The commercial launch of the platform is planned for Q1 2020.
• OSSA members fulfilled their first prototype cameras based on the commonly defined Technology Stack and OS and showcased them throughout 2019 at ISC West, IFSEC, and GSX events.

Access to the Alliance framework

The Open Security & Safety Alliance's five founding companies, including Bosch Building Technologies, Hanwha Techwin, Milestone Systems, Pelco, and VIVOTEK Inc., are joined by 25+ other inventive international players that currently comprise the OSSA member roster.

The Alliance is designed to include everyone and offers membership levels to meet the needs of companies, both big and small. Benefits of joining OSSA include access to the Alliance framework and the ability to connect, discuss, influence, and collaborate with other Alliance members to steer change for the betterment of the industry.