The newly established Open Security & Safety Alliance (OSSA or 'the Alliance'), a non-profit, non-stock corporation formed to outline specifications for a common standardized platform for security and safety solutions, announced that since its formation in Fall 2018, the organization has grown by 50 percent and initiatives are in full swing. The Alliance is quickly attracting players ranging from device manufacturers, software developers and system integrators to distributors and system on a chip (SoC) companies.

“We’re extremely pleased OSSA is drawing strong support from progressive companies across various sectors, as our purpose is to all start from a common platform business model to spur innovation and add real value for customers and users as they manage and monitor property, people and surrounding circumstances,” said Johan Jubbega, president, Open Security & Safety Alliance. “Each new member brings diverse insight and expertise to the bigger picture we’re working to bring into focus for stakeholders in the security, safety, building automation solutions and associated industries.”

The Open Security & Safety Alliance’s five founding companies — Bosch Building Technologies, Hanwha Techwin, Milestone Systems, Pelco by Schneider Electric and VIVOTEK Inc. — are working alongside 15 inventive international players that currently comprise the OSSA member roster.

Workgroups have been instrumental in launching key programs throughout the past six months. To support the Alliance’s mission to drive the development of differentiating security and safety use cases — including those utilizing AI and machine learning — members have already achieved valuable outputs including:

• Specification of a common Technology Stack to cater to innovation and reduce market fragmentation
• Definition of a common and vendor-agnostic operating system (OS) that together with the Technology Stack will fuel the development of value-added solutions for customers and users
• Description of a common market approach to data security and privacy
• Establishment of an ecosystem of like-minded companies 
• Keynote speeches at Milestone’s Integration Platform Symposium and VIP customer events in the U.S., EMEA and Asia-Pacific region
• First prototype cameras based on the commonly defined Technology Stack and OS have been realized and will be showcased at ISC West 2019

The Alliance is designed to include everyone and offers membership levels to meet the needs of companies big or 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. Together, OSSA members are providing standards and specifications for common components including an operating system, IoT infrastructure, collective approach for data security and privacy and a drive for improved levels of performance across products, solutions and services.