Editing Certification FAQ

== Certification FAQ ==

This page provides information on Certification, with an emphasis on matters that are partially or fully governed by the Open Compute Project Foundation.

=== What are the different levels of Certification ? ===

In brief, there are two levels of Certification within the Open Compute project - Open Compute Ready and Open Compute Certified.  A summary of them appears below, more detail to follow shortly, in the meantime please feel free to contact the Foundation with any questions.

==== Open Compute Ready ====

Open Compute Ready (often abbreviated OCP/R) is a basic level of Certification

* Product is not independently certified - testing is performed by the vendor/manufacturer
* Carries the OCP Ready logo
* Underlying specification and design may or may not be contributed to OCP/F
* Available to OCP members only

==== Open Compute Certified ====

Open Compute Certified (often abbreviated OCP/C) is a more comprehensive level of Certification

* Product passes all criteria of Open Compute Ready plus additional tests and burn in
* Product is independently certified - testing is performed by an OCP Foundation endorsed test lab
* Carries the OCP Certified logo
* Underlying specification must be contributed to OCP/F
* Available to OCP members only

=== What is the policy around tools used for Certification activities ? ===

The Foundation has asserted through many channels its commitment to the use of Open technologies whether they be hardware or software.  This is a fundamental tenet of the Foundation's operations and principles and as such is a firmly held position [[1]].

Tools used for test activities are no different - they must be available under a recognised Open Source license or they are unsuitable for use as part of an OCP Foundation sanctioned Certification process.

The Foundation has no objections to Labs involved in OCP test and certification activities providing services to customers that do rely on proprietary tools.

This could, for example, include a scenario where the lab performs testing on OCP hardware using tools provided by a 3rd party to validate the servers suitability for a particular operating system or virtualisation environment. The only proviso here being that it is clear that it is not an OCP Certification activity, it is a software compatibility test and hence the OCP Certified/OCP Ready trademarks cannot be used.

[[1]] This is spelled out in various ways through the Foundation's Bylaws, Membership Agreement and IP Management Policy.  In the latter S2.1 is particularly clear. http://www.opencompute.org/assets/Uploads/OCP-PR-Policy.pdf