Denodo joins Snowflake-led OSI for semantic standard

Denodo has joined Open Semantic Interchange, an open, vendor-neutral initiative led by Snowflake.

The move brings Denodo into an industry effort to create a common specification for semantic metadata across data and AI platforms. The goal is to help organisations use consistent business definitions and metrics across tools including dashboards, notebooks and machine learning models.

Open Semantic Interchange, or OSI, is an open source framework for exchanging business meaning between systems that often use different data models and terminology. The initiative includes companies across business intelligence, data governance, data engineering, AI, financial services and manufacturing.

For Denodo, the decision aligns with its focus on data management and semantic layers. Membership will let it work on interoperability between its own semantic layer and other semantic technologies used across hybrid, multi-cloud and sovereign environments.

Common standard

The initiative addresses a longstanding problem in corporate data estates: the same business metric is often defined differently across tools, teams and departments. That creates inconsistencies in reporting, complicates analytics projects and makes it harder to build AI systems that rely on reliable business context.

OSI is designed to address that by defining semantic metadata in a standard format that can be shared more easily between platforms. Supporters argue that a common model could reduce duplication, simplify data operations and improve trust in analytics and AI outputs.

Led by Snowflake, the initiative brings together ecosystem partners from several parts of the data market. Denodo joins that wider group as vendors push for greater interoperability instead of leaving customers to manage disconnected semantic definitions across multiple environments.

One practical focus is treating business metrics and definitions as portable assets rather than tool-specific settings. That could matter for companies using a mix of cloud platforms, analytical products and internal applications, where data meanings are often recreated in each system.

Denodo sees a universal semantic standard as an important part of the market's development.

"A universal, vendor-neutral semantic standard is critical for enterprises to accelerate innovation and unlock greater business value from AI and analytics," said Kijoon Lee, Vice President of Strategic Alliances at Denodo. "We're excited to join the Open Semantic Interchange and collaborate with Snowflake and other industry leaders to define the next-generation semantic standard. Through OSI, Denodo will enable interoperability between our semantic layer-which delivers trusted business context and live access to operational data across hybrid, multi-cloud, and sovereign environments-and other semantic technologies, helping customers drive measurable business outcomes."

Industry pressure

The announcement reflects a broader push across the data and AI sector to standardise the semantic layer, an area that has gained prominence as companies try to make AI systems work with governed business data. Without a shared approach, organisations can end up with different meanings for the same terms in analytics dashboards, governance systems and AI models.

Standardisation efforts also come as buyers show greater interest in portability and openness. Many large organisations now run data workloads across multiple cloud providers and software stacks, making interoperability a commercial issue as well as a technical one.

Snowflake said the project is intended to provide that common foundation.

"Unlocking the full potential of data and AI requires a common foundation, and the Open Semantic Interchange is the critical step in building that bedrock," said Josh Klahr, Director of Analytics Product Management at Snowflake. "Our collaboration with partners like Denodo establishes a unified, vendor-neutral standard for semantic data, ensuring clarity and consistency across the entire ecosystem. This initiative is essential for simplifying data operations, fostering innovation, and preparing organizations to build the next generation of AI applications."

Denodo is known for data management software that provides a semantic layer and access to operational and analytical data across different environments. It is also a Snowflake Premier partner, giving the move an additional strategic dimension as software suppliers form alliances around shared standards in AI and analytics.

By joining OSI, Denodo is adding its weight to an effort to make semantic model sharing more transparent and consistent across the market. The central proposition is simple: if business meaning can move cleanly between systems, companies may find it easier to analyse data, share data products and build AI applications on top of them.