The OData protocol

The natural consequence of the release of SAP NetWeaver Gateway was a need to choose a communication protocol that could be handled by the new system. Since the main idea behind the Gateway was to enable non-SAP solutions to easily communicate with the SAP system, without knowledge of Advanced Business Application Programming Objects (ABAP) coding or the database structure, the protocol had to be light, fast, and accessible. Coincidentally, parallel to the development of the Gateway, the first version of Microsoft's Astoria project was also introduced, which fit these needs. SAP joined the efforts with Microsoft and several other companies in an attempt to improve this standard, and eventually, this led to what is now known as OData. The OData protocol was then submitted to the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards...