IP Addressing Fundamentals

The Benefits of Openness

Making publicly available standards documents that stipulate every nuance of a technology is known as open standards. Open standards offer tremendous benefits that have been proven time and again since the introduction of this concept. In the days before the Internet, the previous paradigm was tightly integrated proprietary platforms. In other words, every aspect of a networked computing architecture (including endpoint devices, cable interfaces, computing platforms, operating systems, applications, and printers) was tightly linked by the manufacturers. You couldn't mix and match components from different manufacturers; you had to select one vendor for all your needs.

The benefits have proven very compelling. Competition ...