Ecma International and Open Compute Project Signed Memorandum of Understanding

Ecma International, a global standards developing organization dedicated to the open standardization of information and communication systems, and the Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen collaboration for standardization of work produced by OCP storage projects.

In the near term, the partners aim to collaborate by integrating specs for the HDD Surrogate, a device with HDD geometry and sensors developed by the HDD Dynamics sub-project under the OCP Storage Project, into a standard managed by Ecma Technical Committee 26 (TC26) for the purpose of exchanging HDD vibro-acoustic disturbance information, in order to promote functional HDD operation. Potential long-term collaboration topics include information storage, product environmental/sustainability attributes and product safety.

“Ecma International is excited to formalize our relationship with OCP,” said Samina Husain, Ecma secretary general. “By integrating OCP’s innovative contributions, we aim to further enhance our standards and foster technological advancements in storage performance that will benefit the entire industry.“

“This collaboration represents an important step in open technology development serving global markets,” said Jochen Friedrich, Ecma president. “By working closely with the OCP Community, we hope to enable the adoption of critical storage technology innovations developed by hyperscale data center operators and their collaborators across the industry.“

The agreement sets the stage for both organizations to collaborate, avoiding duplication of efforts and maximizing their impact on the future of HDD and storage technologies.

“The OCP Community often comes together collaboratively to solve problems identified by operating data centers at a very large scale, and these solutions become a de facto standard due to their adoption within the Community,” said Cliff Grossner, Ph.D., chief innovation officer, OCP. “It is our pleasure that, through OCP’s collaboration with Ecma, innovations developed by the OCP Community can be included into global standards for the benefit of the broader market.“