The European Commission has launched a new Open Systems Interconnection product purchasing guide called EPHOS, European Procurement Handbook for Open Systems, which urges government procurement officers to buy Open Systems Interconnection compatible networking systems based on X400, File Transfer Access and Management and X25 standards. The European programme, like the US Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile or GOSIP effort, is mandatory, and its is expected that most government buyers will follow the guidelines because they will have to give and explain reasons for non-standard purchases. However, EPHOS is not expected to impinge upon the UK’s own GOSIP profile: EPHOS is at a higher level, according to the UK’s Central Computing & Telecommunications Agency, although it admits that they may merge in the future, but we’re talking about four or five years, it said.
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