The Open Group provides program management and consortia management services to government agencies, their suppliers, and integrators, assisting them to meet their business or mission needs based on the use of open systems components or practices. The Open Group Government Programs Division provides services in four main areas:

• Organization of events that foster interactions among Department of Defense (DoD) organizations, government integrators, and commercial suppliers
• Forum activities, which are key focal point for interaction on DoD needs for architecture, standards and certification in a non-procurement setting
• Contract proof of concept, technology transfer and IT architecture consulting
• Development of standardization, certification and best practices programs
  

Strategy and IT Architecture Services
The Open Group offers a broad set of strategy services to the Government sector, including preparation of extensive analyses, development of comprehensive business scenarios with a set of practical recommendations, and IT architecture consulting. We offer pragmatic guidance and enable organizations set clear direction, helping them with defining requirements, concepts, selecting the right models and tools, and devising effective solutions.

Through the Real-time and Embedded Systems Forum, The Open Group also works on developing a “coordinated' Open Architecture for Real-time and Embedded System environments that would be mutually beneficial for the various architecture approach(es) to include but not limited to DoD Joint Integrated Open Architectures, Navy Open Architecture, Air Force Viable Combat Aircraft Joint Council on Aging Avionics, Modular Open Systems Approach Interoperability Initiative, Army Weapon Systems Common Operating Environment and various open architectures from corporations and system integrators.

Management Services
The Open Group provides management services to government sector organizations for a variety of programs. For the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) we provide program management of the NASPL Standards Initiative which is dedicated to development of standards, certification and best practices to achieve an interoperable lottery environment with increased efficiency, integrity and reduced costs. We also provide management services for the recently launched Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC), which focuses on interoperability in a network centric environment within and among different levels of US government and its allies, and provides guidance on developing common standards in response to asymmetric threats.

Innovation and Research Services
The Open Group provides consulting and technology transfer services focusing on government-sponsored advanced technologies. Our customers include a range of commercial and government agencies, government suppliers and integrators who need assured end-to-end IT system performance. Recent programs include Open Toolkit project for Navy, Dynamic Certification, and other Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) projects. .
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Recent Events
Check the agenda of the Real Time and Embedded Systems Forum and Grid Enterprise Services Forum at The Open Group’s recent conferences.

Government Programs’ Publications and Downloads

Papers
Presentations
Proposals

Standards Services
The Open Group's standards services include development of requirements, best practices, and specifications within the Real-Time and Embedded Systems Forum and Grid Enterprise Services Forum. The Open Group is aggressively supporting the development of open standards for portability and interoperability in critical applications.  It is currently hosting an effort to develop a version of the Java programming language that will be suitable for use in safety critical applications, with a specific focus on systems with requirements similar to those applied by the FAA under the DO-178B standard.

The Open Group is working with:

• The IPv6 community to set up a program to refine security standards profiles of IPv6 in military applications.
• Web services community to establish profiles for use in military applications
• Government agencies and defense contractors on Common Criteria Security for Real-Time Systems.

The Open Group has also been involved in the development of standards and best practices for the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL).

Certification Services
The Open Group has a long track record and extensive experience in developing and operating certification programs that provide assurance of compliance with standards, show vendors’ commitment to their products, and allow buyers to procure with confidence. Our programs have clear and well-defined certification policies and are based on industry best practices. Recent projects include development of certification program for North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) Standard Initiative, and a certification program for Schools Interoperablity Framework Association (SIF). In response to the DISA decision to transition DII COE certification to the industry, we launched The Common Operating Environment (COE) Platform certification.

Product Technology
With increasing need to develop complex mission critical applications with higher levels of functionality, organization face pressure to reduce development costs while increasing reliability, and adding new capabilities in the areas of distributed systems and quality of service control. In response, The Open Group is working on developing a new mission critical Java standard, which will form the basis for a set of commercially supplied, interoperable components suitable for use in high-capability, critical systems.

Government Programs Team
The Open Group's team offers an extensive experience and long track record of conducting research, providing services, and bringing innovative solutions to the problems of high availability networks.
biographies

Contact
Please email us for more information.
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