The Analysis Object Data (AOD) are produced by ATLAS reconstruction and are the main input for most analyses. AOD, like the Event Summary Data (ESD, the other main output of reconstruction) are written as POOL files and are readable from Athena, and, to a limited extent, from ROOT. The AOD typical size, processing speed, and their relatively complex class structure and package dependencies, make them inconvenient to use for most interactive analysis. According to the computing model, interactive analysis will be based on Derived Physics Data (DPD), a user-defined format commonly produced from the AOD. As of release 12.0.3 it is common practice to write DPD as Athena-aware Ntuples (AANT) in ROOT. In an effort to organize and standardize AANT, we introduced the Structured Athena-aware Ntuple (SAN), an AANT containing objects that behave, as much as it is allowed by ROOT interpreter limitations, as their AOD counterparts. Recently it was proposed to extend SAN functionality beyond DPD implementation. SAN objects would be used as AOD objects. The TOB formed our task force with the mandate to "perform a technical evaluation of the two proposals, one based upon the existing AOD classes and architecture, the other upon Structured Athena-Aware Ntuples. [...] Criteria for the evaluation should include I/O performance, support for schema evolution, suitability for end user analysis and simplicity.
