Every year on October 14, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) celebrate World Standards Day. The day recognizes the thousands of experts worldwide who work together to develop voluntary technical agreements that become international standards.

For Oracle, standards are a foundation for innovation. They help technologies work across products, platforms, industries, and borders. They also support the interoperability, trust, and customer choice needed to help organizations get more value, choice, freedom, and flexibility from their technology investments.

Oracle’s commitment to standardization
Oracle actively participates in more than 100 standards-setting organizations and more than 300 technical committees. Thousands of Oracle employees contribute to standards and open-source projects across areas ranging from Java and Linux to Kubernetes.

Oracle works with organizations including ISO, W3C, OASIS, IEEE, and IETF. Its standards work spans security, AI governance, cloud security, secure software development, data centers, sustainability, vertical industry solutions and emerging regulatory requirements.

Oracle’s standards-based approach centers on interoperability, choice, and helping customers make the most of their technology investments. As a global provider of technology products and services, Oracle recognizes that international standards can help create consistency across markets and reduce unnecessary fragmentation.

The importance of standards
Standards can translate high-level regulatory objectives into repeatable technical practices. They can support consistency, interoperability, and common approaches to security, while helping organizations navigate a rapidly evolving technology and policy landscape.

Meaningful standards are built through collaboration among industry, customers, governments, academic experts, and civil society. Open and transparent processes bring together diverse perspectives and help technology evolve in ways that benefit a broad ecosystem. These principles are especially important for today’s technology priorities: AI, cloud, cybersecurity, and sustainability.

AI standards
AI standards can support transparency, risk management, security, accuracy, and human oversight. They give organizations common frameworks for developing, deploying, and governing AI systems responsibly.

Oracle participates in the development of AI standards addressing areas including fairness, explainability, privacy, security, and human oversight. Oracle’s AI policies and practices are designed to align with applicable laws, regulations, and relevant industry standards, including the EU AI Act, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, and ISO/IEC 42001:2023.

Oracle’s approach to Responsible AI has integrated certification for ISO/IEC 42001:2023, the international standard for AI management systems. Accredited third-party certifications have been issued for four Oracle offerings: OCI AI Services, Oracle Health and Life Sciences services, Oracle SaaS on OCI, and NetSuite. Learn more about how Oracle regularly evaluates and updates its approach as AI technology and regulation continue to evolve. 

Cloud standards
Cloud technology is central to digital transformation, helping businesses and governments improve performance, flexibility, and agility. Interoperability and portability standards can help customers retain flexibility across cloud environments and make informed technology choices over time.

Standards such as ISO/IEC 19941:2017 address important aspects of cloud interoperability and portability. As cloud increasingly provides the foundation for AI applications, these standards become even more important. Oracle also offers sovereign cloud solutions in Europe, giving customers greater choice related to data residency, EU-based operations, and support.

Cybersecurity standards
As governments introduce cybersecurity requirements and regulations, and organizations face an increasingly complex threat landscape, internationally recognized standards help turn policy objectives into practical, consistent security measures. Oracle’s work to advance cybersecurity through global standards supports these common approaches.

Standards such as ISO/IEC 27001:2022 provide a common framework for information security management. They help organizations establish shared expectations for protecting systems, data, and services across the global digital ecosystem. The EU Cyber Resilience Act introduces new security expectations for digital products.

Sustainability and data center standards
Consistent measures, methods, key performance indicators, and related standards help organizations assess and advance environmental goals. In data centers, they can support efforts to improve resource efficiency, resilience, and sustainability.

Oracle participates in the Open Compute Project (OCP) which is a global community bringing together organizations and individuals to collaboratively develop open technologies that meet the rapidly evolving needs of data center and IT infrastructure. The OCP Sustainability Project and the OCP Data Center Facility Project focus on open, collaborative designs that enhance efficiency and sustainability.  Oracle also participates in the development of standards and industry initiatives that support more sustainable and resource-efficient data centers, including the ISO/IEC 30134 series and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 39. As demand for cloud computing and AI grows, Oracle is investing in next-generation data centers and resilient digital infrastructure. Oracle has also joined the Tokenomics Foundation with the objective to establish open, vendor-neutral industry standards, benchmarks and best practices for the economics of AI.

Oracle has also published sustainability goals for its data center operations, including reducing carbon emissions per megawatt of IT capacity by 20% by 2030, relative to a 2020 baseline. These efforts reflect the importance of clear, consistent measures for evaluating environmental progress. Oracle’s new goals and progress are also featured in Oracle’s Sustainability Journey blog post. 

Advancing technology through collaboration
On World Standards Day, Oracle recognizes the global experts and organizations that make open standardization possible. Standards help foster interoperability, customer choice, security, and responsible innovation across AI, cloud, cybersecurity, sustainability, and vertical industry specific solutions, such as Health.

Oracle remains committed to open, transparent collaboration that helps customers, industries, and societies realize more value from technology.

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