Evolving Standards to Keep Pace with Open CDEs
🧱 Why Standards Still Matter in a Federated World
Over the last 15 years, standards like BS 1192, PAS 1192, and ISO 19650 have laid the foundations for more structured digital delivery. These frameworks brought consistency to how project teams capture, organise, and control information throughout the design and construction process.
But in 2025, infrastructure and asset-rich industries face a new complexity:
Data is no longer just geometric, it's geospatial, operational, financial, and behavioural
Teams work across multiple systems, from BIM and GIS to ERP and AIMS
Information is expected to persist beyond delivery, enabling digital twins and asset performance insights
🔗 To meet these needs, we require standards that are as connected and interoperable as the systems they support.
🌐 From CDE to Open CDE
Traditional CDEs were built to manage models, drawings, and files in one system. But Open CDEs allow data to flow across platforms ensuring that information integrity, auditability, and lifecycle alignment are preserved, regardless of where data originates.
This shift requires a broader scope of standards, not just for design and construction, but also for:
🗺️ Geospatial standards (e.g., ISO 19115, OGC, ESRI data models)
🧾 Asset data and classification standards (e.g., ISO 55000, UNICLASS, COBie)
📊 Data validation and exchange schemas (e.g., IDS, IFC, BCF, bSDD)
📘 Information management processes (e.g., ISO 19650, ISO 8000, ISO 14224)
🏛️ Public sector mandates (e.g., UK Information Management Mandate, EU data regulations)
📘 Where Standards Must Evolve
To keep pace with Open CDE environments, several key areas of industry standards require expansion or coordination:
1. Cross-Discipline Information Management
Standards must bridge BIM, GIS, and asset management, not treat them as isolated domains. For example:
IFC must work alongside GIS metadata standards (ISO 19115)
Asset owners need continuity between design (COBie) and operations (ISO 55000)
2. Open Integration Models
As infrastructure delivery increasingly spans across BIM, GIS, ERP, and asset management platforms, the need for open integration models has become critical. Reliable connectivity between systems requires more than just ad hoc file exchanges it demands alignment around APIs, data exchange protocols, and metadata schemas. Whether connecting BIM to GIS, a CDE to an ERP system, or scaling from individual projects to entire portfolios, interoperability must be intentional and standards-driven.
This is exactly where CDE Sync is making an impact. At Utopia Digital, we’re creating the open integration models the industry needs to operate efficiently in federated environments. CDE Sync enables structured, standards-based connectivity across platforms like Autodesk, Bentley, 12d Synergy, GIS systems, and enterprise-level tools without requiring any of them to change. It leverages open schemas, API-driven synchronisation, and code-free configuration to deliver secure, scalable integration.
In short, we’re not just supporting open integration, we’re redefining how the industry enables it.
3. Governance in Federated Systems
Current standards favour centralised project control. Open CDEs need new governance models that define:
How roles, responsibilities, and validation are shared
How metadata is structured and governed across systems
How audit trails, approvals, and handovers function in connected workflows
4. Geospatial-Asset Alignment
In civil, utilities, and smart cities projects, location-aware asset data is critical. Yet BIM and GIS standards are often applied separately. We need:
Better semantic mapping between IFC and geospatial standards
Guidance on integrating GIS, BIM, and asset data into Open CDEs
🧠 Don’t Forget Data for AI & Analytics
As automation, generative design, and digital twin platforms mature, AI is only as powerful as the structure and meaning of the data it’s fed.
Even the most advanced AI agents need context:
What does this model element represent?
Is this asset tagged with lifecycle metadata?
Has this data been validated to an IDS?
Open CDEs provide the structured information architecture needed for AI to operate confidently across platforms—but that means the underlying standards must be machine-readable, consistent, and cross-platform.
🔐 Information Security and Assurance
As data moves across environments, security and compliance must remain intact. Evolving standards should account for:
🔐 Role-based access in federated systems
🔄 Secure synchronisation without data duplication
📋 Proof of compliance and digital assurance
At Utopia Digital, CDE Sync enables all of this, while preserving data sovereignty, transparency, and traceability, with no persistent storage.
🏗️ Enabling the Supply Chain, Not Replacing It
A key strength of Open CDEs is that they meet the supply chain where they are. Instead of requiring contractors or vendors to adopt new platforms, Open CDEs integrate data through shared schemas and secure rules.
This inclusive model ensures:
SMEs and delivery partners can contribute structured data from their own tools
No one is penalised for not using the client’s platform
Data validation, audit trails, and metadata governance remain intact
📖 We explore this in depth in our related post:
👉 Seamless Supply Chain Integration Is the Future of Digital Asset Management
🎓 Standards in Practice: Education Leading the Way
At the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), the Digital Engineering Microcredentials program is preparing professionals to manage data across connected ecosystems. The curriculum includes:
Digital strategy, CDE setup and collaboration
Survey and existing conditions modelling
Design coordination and Cross-system integration principles (CDE + GIS + AIMS)
Real-world application of Open CDEs using CDE Sync
Quantity take-off for planning, cost estimating and carbon quantification.
Utopia Digital proudly contributes to this program, bridging industry theory with technical delivery.
🛠️ Our Role at Utopia Digital
We’re helping clients apply these evolving standards in real environments, across government, energy, and infrastructure.
With CDE Sync, we enable:
Open CDE workflows aligned to ISO and OpenBIM
Synchronisation across Bentley, Autodesk, GIS, 12d Synergy, and more
Metadata validation using emerging IDS schemas
Lifecycle-ready data for digital handover and asset performance
Federated governance without disrupting delivery teams
💬 Final Thought: Frameworks Must Follow Function
The Open CDE is already here. Standards can no longer lag behind digital reality, they must support integration across tools, systems, and domains.
If we want digital twins, connected portfolios, and scalable assurance, we need frameworks that reflect how work is actually delivered in 2025.
