Microsoft sharpens interoperability focus
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft says it will focus on four key areas to improve interoperability between its own software and other vendors' products. Senior Microsoft representatives met with InfoWorld on Thursday to highlight identity management; Web services and related development; collaboration between information workers and system management comprise the new interoperability focus. "We are really working on new protocols in the WS-* [spoken as Web services star] space that enable interoperability across identity systems," said Jean Paoli, Microsoftâs general manager of interoperability and XML architecture. Lat week, Microsoft vowed to integrate its CardSpace identity management system with the OpenID Web authentication standard. Paoli emphasized the move as evidence of the commitment. WS-* represents a series of Web services-related specifications for standardization in areas such as security and messaging. A lot of the issues Microsoft has in interoperability tend to fall into these four categories, said Tom Robertson, the companyâs general manager of interoperability and standards. "Those are the four areas that we're hearing about now," as needing attention, Paoli said. "It doesn't mean the list is closed." Microsoft's identity management push, however, apparently will not be centered on its previous Passport initiative for Internet security.Â  "I've not been hearing about Passport in so long," Paoli said. Microsoft plans to be creative in addressing interoperability, using a host of tools at its disposal. "It's going to mean making IP available in a range of ways," Robertson said. The company already has dabbled in open source as a way to boost interoperability, offering a bridge between the OpenDocument Format (ODF) and Microsoft's Open XML electronic document formats, said Robertson. Paoli and Robertson listed multiple Microsoft interoperability projects in the past several years, such as its work with Novell on interoperability between Windows and Novell's Suse Linux. The company's interoperability effort with Sun Microsystems also was noted. But they remained upset with IBM for what Microsoft perceives are IBM efforts to block Open XML from becoming approved as a standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The two co-authored an open letter this week entitled "Interoperability, Choice and Open XML," that pointed fingers of blame at IBM. "The open letter is an effort to clearly articulate what Microsoft is trying to do," Robertson said. It is important to shine a light on what IBM is doing to block Open XML and block choice, he added. In response, an IBM representative pointed to the ConsortiumInfo.org Standards Blog, which states there is "significant commercial opposition" to Microsoft's electronic document proposal. Microsoft made a "bad bet " that ODF would fail in the marketplace, the blog stated.
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Microsoft and Sun Microsystems on Friday published a specification to leverage Web services for managing a broad range of IT systems including PCs and devices on a network.
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Technical and legal pact calls for product interoperability and legal protections for common customers.
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COPENHAGEN - Microsoft Corp. wrapped up its IT Forum in Copenhagen this week by singing the praises of new management tools that are part of a long-term vision for reducing IT complexity. But behind its more vocal announcements there emerged another significant tune, one that suggested that the software maker will have to be more willing to play with platforms from other companies in order to deliver its new strategy.
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Like many, I was pretty shocked by the recent Microsoft-EU deal to settle the long-running investigation into interoperability issues.  This was not so much because of the way Microsoft has used every kind of delaying tactic it could before eventually agreeing (for the nth time) to try harder in the future.  My real dismay was provoked by the gap between appearance and reality â a chasm that I think bodes ill for the future of open source. read more
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TechWeb - Most of its work within the group will focus on making its middleware more compatible with Microsoft's.
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In a statement issued Thanksgiving Day -â perhaps timed appropriately, since the holiday is celebrated mainly in the US -â Microsoft said it had released all 8,500 pages of its technical documentation for interoperability, as requested by the European Commission, back in July.
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It has been "Issues Week" all week for Microsoft, and Thursday, the company took on the dreaded interoperability issue. But its choice of message was called into question a bit yesterday after Microsoft boasted of having signed up its first official customer for its interoperability IP licenses: Quest Software.
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Tech giants Microsoft and Cisco have agreed to develop and promote interoperability between their respective network access technologies.
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The Open Solutions Alliance, a nonprofit group backed by a number of commercial open source vendors, released a survey on Wednesday that found interoperability is a foremost concern among open source software customers.The group, which includes CollabNet, EnterpriseDB, and others, contended in a statement that if its members overcome interoperability challenges, they stand to &quot;out-Microsoft Microsoft by offering a fully interoperable suite of business tools.&quot;&quot;We think interoperability has to be a core feature [of open source software] from the very beginning,&quot; OSA&#39;s president, Dominic Sartorio, said in an interview. &quot;Most commercial open source companies are finding a good amount of success. But how many opportunities are they leaving on the table because they&#39;re not interoperable?&quot;The OSA singled out Microsoft, as opposed to Oracle or SAP, because its member companies mostly target midmarket customers, according to Sartorio. &quot;We have one common competitor: Microsoft.&quot;OSA derived the study&#39;s findings from a series of forums it held this year in Europe and the United States. It said some 100 people attended the events.Participants cited a variety of interoperability scenarios and concerns, including single sign-on for identity management.Another involved user interface interoperability. &quot;A lot of people try to plug open source projects into an enterprise portal, and they want a unified look and feel,&quot; Sartorio said.Customers also cited cross-platform portability and data integration challenges.In addition, the study found that:-- Lower up-front cost was the most important driver for adoption of open source products, but this was tempered by concerns that spending on support and services would be greater. That feeling in turn was mitigated by a belief among respondents that open source products will become more mature over time and easier to support.-- Few customers cited the ability to customize source code as a selling point for open source applications, preferring instead that it handle their needs out of the box.Sartorio said OSA&#39;s work will continue in 2008. &quot;This is going to be an ongoing effort. We&#39;re scratching the surface here with issues customers brought up in these forums,&quot; he said.
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What may have been one of the least inspiring demonstrations at TechEd earlier this month may actually pertain to one of the most critical issues Microsoft faces among enterprise customers:  If it truly means to achieve interoperability, it needs to be able to recognize what it can be interoperable with.
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Delivering the capabilities of traditional EAI products within a light-footprint, standards-based infrastructure supporting incremental integration
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Blog: At Enterprise 2.0 conference, Microsoft releases toolkit to enhance Web 2.0 tools in SharePoint.
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Microsoft and Sun Microsystems on Wednesday held a progress report on work being done pursuant to their April 2004 agreement to collaborate on interoperability.
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IT vendors are championing highly integrated and flexible systems through offerings such as IBM's 'on-demand computing' initiative and HP's 'adaptive enterprise' strategy. But what's really important, users say, is support for open standards.
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Sun Microsystems and Microsoft next month plan to reveal the work they have been doing to make their products interoperable, a Sun executive said yesterday.
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Consortium of companies working on software interoperability cites Europe's abundant open-source projects.