Open Versus Proprietary Systems
Although the open-source model is well-known today, when the OSI model was being developed, there was an ongoing struggle to balance technical openness with competitive advantage. At that time, each individual network equipment vendor saw it as an advantage to develop technologies that other companies could not copy or interact with. Proprietary systems let a vendor claim competitive advantage as well as collect fees from other vendors it might choose to share the technology with.
However, proprietary systems can complicate the network administrator's job by locking him or her into one vendor, reducing competitiveness and allowing the vendor to charge higher prices. If the vendor goes out of business or abandons the technology, no one is left to support or enhance the technology.
The alternative is an open-systems approach in which standards bodies, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) or ISO, define technologies. Ethernet, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) are examples of technologies that became standards. Today it is almost impossible to gain market traction with a product that does not at least allow an open interface for other vendors to work with. Any network-equipment vendor can implement an open standard.
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