ISO/PAS 22720:2005 gives a brief description of ASAM ODS Version 5.0 where ASAM stands for Association for Standardization of Automation and Measuring Sytems and ODS for Open Data Services.

It specifies an architecture-independent method for the persistent storage and retrieval of data. ASAM ODS provides:

• a common data model (base model) for the unambiguous and complete storage of data;
• interfaces (Application Programmer's Interfaces, APIs) to access data of ASAM-compatible systems and tools in a standardized way;
• a database model for the (wide-spread) relational databases;
• a standardized, easy to use, text-based exchange format (ASAM Transport Format, ATF) in order to exchange ASAM ODS data (including its meta-information) between different systems and different platforms;
• a set of application models that reflect typical scenarios for the use of ASAM ODS and that easily allows a mapping between data originating from different companies.