Why ODPS v0.9.0 Matters — And Why We’re Supporting It at Actian
A practical, community-driven standard for building scalable, governed, and reusable data products we love.
made me realize that there was no outlet for Bitol-only news. There is so much going on that he opened a section in the great Data Intelligence Platform blog. Here's my first brief, thanks, Ole!
At Actian, we’ve spent years helping organizations bring order to their data chaos. But let’s be honest: building truly reusable, governed, and scalable data products often felt like trying to build IKEA furniture with parts from twenty different brands and instructions in Latin rather than diagrams.
That’s why I am thrilled about the release of ODPS v0.9.0, the Open Data Product Standard. This isn’t just another specification added to the data ecosystem. It’s a focused, opinionated, community-driven standard that brings the clarity we all need when defining, publishing, and managing data products. What makes ODPS stand out isn’t just its structure; it’s the people behind it. The standard has been shaped by a diverse and passionate Technical Steering Committee (TSC) that includes platform engineers, product leaders, architects, and data practitioners from a wide range of industries and regions. It reflects real-world experience, practical needs, and a shared vision to create and manage data products that are usable, scalable, and reliable. That variety of perspectives has led to a standard that is grounded, extensible, and ready for implementation.
If you’re wondering, “Wait, another standard?” Yes, but hear me out. ODPS doesn’t reinvent the wheel. Instead, it provides the missing chassis for the wheels we’ve all been trying to bolt onto our data platforms. It aligns closely with ODCS (Open Data Contract Standard), so your contracts define the promise, and ODPS defines the product. Together, they provide you with everything from lifecycle metadata to delivery interfaces and governance, all baked in (not bolted on). If you want to understand a little more about how data contracts and data products work together, check out this Medium post.
The best part? ODPS adopts the modern definition of a data product, as outlined in Wikipedia: an active, reusable, standardized asset enriched with metadata, governed by domain ownership, and designed to deliver real value. It supports FAIR principles, promotes accountability, and yes, even recommends bringing your own SBOM (we suggest SPDX for that).
At Actian, we see ODPS as a turning point. It’s a foundation we can align with, not just in theory, but in how we design our tooling, APIs, and user experience. It’s how we help our customers scale their data product strategy without having to write a 50-page internal standard first. We’re already integrating key ODPS principles into our own roadmap and tooling.
Is it perfect yet? No. It’s version 0.9.0, after all. But it’s real, it’s community-led (shoutout to the Bitol TSC), and it’s where things are going. If you care about building better data products, this is the perfect time to get started. Read the docs, share feedback, and yes…
Go ⭐️ the standard: https://github.com/bitol-io/open-data-product-standard. We did. Your future data stack will thank you.
Call to Action: Attend the next Bitol community call on July 23, 2025, at 12:00 p.m. (noon) EST (9:00 a.m. PST, 6:00 p.m. CET) on Zoom. The agenda includes an introduction to Bitol, a presentation on Bitol ODPS, and an 'Ask Us Anything' session with several members of the Bitol TSC.
More resources:
Announcement on LinkedIn.