Overview
ISO/IEC TR 20547-5:2018 - part of the Big Data Reference Architecture (BDRA) series - is a technical report that provides a standards roadmap for big data. It catalogs existing and in‑development standards relevant to big data, maps those standards to the BDRA functional layers, and presents a prioritized agenda for future standardization based on a gap analysis. The report complements the BDRA (ISO/IEC 20547‑3) and uses the vocabulary in ISO/IEC 20546.
Key topics
- Standards inventory: a curated list of international and industry standards (ISO, IEC, IEEE, IETF, W3C, OGC, OASIS, etc.) relevant to big data functions and interfaces.
- BDRA mapping: annotation of which BDRA layers (Data Provider, Data Consumer, Processing, Platform, Infrastructure, Integration, Security & Privacy, Management, Application Provider) would be standard implementers or users.
- Gap analysis: identification of areas where current standards do not sufficiently address big data characteristics (volume, velocity, variety, variability) or scalability requirements.
- Priorities and pathway: recommendations and a proposed pathway to address the identified gaps and to coordinate future standards development efforts.
- Scope and normative reference: the document is a Technical Report (TR, non‑normative guidance) and references ISO/IEC 20546 for definitions and vocabulary.
Practical applications
ISO/IEC TR 20547‑5:2018 is practical for:
- Architects and system integrators building Big Data Reference Architectures who need to identify relevant standards for interfaces, data formats, and scalability.
- Standards developers and SDOs planning new work items or coordinating cross‑organization efforts to fill interoperability and scalability gaps.
- Vendors and implementers selecting standards to guide product design, APIs, and conformance testing.
- Procurement and policy teams specifying standards‑based requirements for big data platforms and services to improve interoperability, data portability, and vendor neutrality.
- Researchers and open source projects who want to align implementations with international standards and identify areas where new specifications are needed.
Related standards
- ISO/IEC 20547 series (BDRA), notably ISO/IEC 20547‑3 (BDRA viewpoints)
- ISO/IEC 20546 (Big data - Definition and vocabulary)
- Examples referenced: ISO 6709:2008 (geographic coordinates), ISO/IEC 9075 (SQL), ISO/IEC TR 9789, ISO/IEC 9798 (security techniques)
- Leading SDOs: ISO, IEC, IEEE, IETF, W3C, OGC, OASIS, DMTF, OGF
Using ISO/IEC TR 20547‑5 helps organizations align big data initiatives with existing standards, prioritize standardization needs, and accelerate interoperable, scalable big data solutions.