Why Open Standards Are Winning in Commercial Equipment Buying

Something has quietly changed in how companies buy equipment.

Ten years ago safe felt like closing systems. One brand. One ecosystem. One phone number to call when it broke. Simple.

Today that same setup gets flagged as a risk in the buying meeting.

Buyers now ask a very different question before they sign anything:

“If this supplier walks away tomorrow, what happens to the fleet?”

That’s really one question. Why are open standards winning? And where are they winning more obviously than commercial drone hardware?

Here’s what’s driving it…

Here’s what’s coming up:

• Airspace Awareness: Where Open Standards Get Real
• Why Closed Systems Lost Their Shine
• What “Open” Actually Means On The Ground
• The Hidden Cost Of Getting Locked In
• How To Buy Equipment That Stays Open

Airspace Awareness: Where Open Standards Get Real

Begin with something most commercial operators will soon require. An ADS-B receiver for use with drones is a small board that listens to the position broadcasts of crewed aircraft in the vicinity and passes that traffic picture on to the autopilot so the aircraft can move out of the way.

That handover is the whole ballgame.

An ADS-B receiver is no good on a drone if the flight controller can’t read its output. Open autopilot platforms such as Cube Pilot publish their protocol and connector pinouts so a receiver from one supplier fits into a flight controller built by someone else and just works. Upgrade that receiver next year to something better and your aircraft still flies.

Now picture the closed version of the same job.

The receiver talks to one autopilot. The autopilot listens to one catalogue. Parts for one receiver comes from one supplier. Firmware update goes live and now the traffic feed doesn’t work. There is no backup supplier to contact because they don’t have a backup supplier.

Same hardware. Same mission. Completely different level of risk.

Why Closed Systems Lost Their Shine

Closed systems were never really about quality. They were about control.

The vendor assembles the hardware, authors the software, has the file format and sells you the spare parts. Every upgrade must be done through them. Every repair must be done through them. Every price increase impacts you, because you have no choice but to pay them.

Buyers have finally done the maths on that.

Based on a survey from the Open Source Initiative of over 700 technology professionals, preventing vendor lock-in has become one of the top motivations organizations choose open technology, with 55% of respondents identifying it and increasing 68% year over year.

That’s not a mood swing. That is policy on mass purchases changing at thousands of companies simultaneously.

Regulators noticed this trend too. A survey from the European Commission revealed that 40% of public procurers already feel locked in, typically due to legacy and newer systems not being able to communicate with each other.

Why should you care: government standards become private sector standards two years later. If governments put mandates for “open standards” in their tenders, suppliers re-write their product roadmaps.

What “Open” Actually Means On The Ground

“Open” is a broad term these days, so it’s helpful to think of it as the three things buyers actually want.

Open Protocols

Its the language two devices speak with each other. If it’s published and documented, any engineer can design something that will comply.

That’s why a drone-owner can connect an ADS-B receiver made by a tiny specialist to a flight controller made by someone else without either company needing to sign any partnership agreement.

Open Interfaces

Connectors, pinouts, mounting patterns and voltage levels.

Generic modules are boring. But boring modules allow you to not scrap an entire airframe because one module became discontinued.

Open Data

Your logs, your flight records, your maintenance history.

If that information only opens with the vendor’s proprietary application, then it is not truly yours. Ask any user who has attempted to migrate three years worth of flight logs to a new system.

The Hidden Cost Of Getting Locked In

The sticker price is never the real price. Here is what actually bites.

Price Creep

Sole suppliers increase prices because they know they can. There is no competing bid to show them. The vendor realizes that.

Slow Upgrades

Open ecosystems evolve quickly since many companies develop for the same standard. The market for ADS-B receiver arrays for drones is one example of that rapid growth. It was worth an estimated $0.53 billion in 2025 and will exceed $1 billion by 2030, growing at roughly 14% per year.

Closed ecosystems move at the speed of exactly one engineering team.

Dead Ends

The worst one.

A supplier is acquired, pivots or just stops producing a component. Replacing that component is an afternoon’s work in an open ecosystem. In a closed one it can take your whole fleet out of commission.

The pattern is always the same:

• Cheap to get in
• Expensive to stay
• Painful to leave

How To Buy Equipment That Stays Open

So how do you actually put this into practice without slowing down purchasing?

Begin by writing what the equipment needs to do, not which brand will supply it. The second you put a brand name into a specification competition is eliminated and the price increases.

Then ask every supplier the same short list of questions:

• Is the communication protocol published and free to use?
• Can the data be exported in a common format?
• Are there at least two suppliers for each critical module?
• Is the firmware updated by more than one team?
• What happens to support if the company is sold?

Open standard compliant suppliers respond to that question in thirty seconds. Suppliers who don’t use open standards will wax poetic about their “ecosystem.” Know what you’ve been told when you get that answer.

One additional thing you should do. Prior to placing a sizable order, perform a small pilot using components from two different vendors and validate interoperability. The cost is negligible and it validates the openness isn’t just marketing hype.

Open doesn’t mean unsupported either. Many vendors provide warranties, spares and proper service on open platforms. You get the safety net, without the handcuffs.

Tying It All Together

Standards are prevailing because consumers stopped commodity shopping and began looking for choice.

A closed system forces you to wager the entire business on one company remaining viable, interested and at fair prices for ten years. That is a large wager, and the data suggests there are fewer buyers willing to take it.

An open system spreads that bet across a whole market.

To quickly recap:

• Closed systems trade short-term simplicity for long-term risk
• Lock-in shows up as price creep, slow upgrades and dead ends
• Published protocols keep second suppliers available
• Specify what the kit must do, never which badge it must wear
• Pilot with two brands before committing to a fleet

It doesn’t matter if you are buying a robot arm, a fleet telematics box or an ADS-B receiver for UAVs, the test is identical. Ask yourself what happens if the supplier changes their mind.

If the answer is “nothing much”, you bought well.