Enterprise extensibility and inter-operativity or inter-dependency is extremely complex to get right.

Multiple standards exist for just about anything, and most implementations of something are broken in one way or another. I've seen obvious and subtle breakage in things that ought to be simple: * timestamps (not unambigious, not including timezone data) * mac addresses (within SNMP, in a variety of formats in different places on the same kit) * integration with LDAP (group membership only looking at primary membership) * etc.

We live in hope. Postel's Law applies.