Microsoft, Novell open an 'interoperability lab'
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Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. announced the opening of an "interoperability lab" in Cambridge. At the 2,500-square-foot facility, a priority of a lab team made up of Microsoft and Novell engineers will be to ensure interoperability between Microsoft and Novell virtualization technologies, the companies said. Plans for the lab were revealed last fall as part of a collaboration agreement between ...
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Microsoft and Novell this week released new details about their interoperability alliance, saying they are focusing on four areas of technology to address significant problems faced by enterprise customers: virtualization, Web services for managing physical and virtual servers, directory and identity interoperability, and document format compatibility.
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Avanade on Monday is partnering with Microsoft to release Enterprise Library, which features reusable code, tools, and guidance intended to make it easier to develop in the .Net environment.
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Following through on the company's groundbreaking deal with Microsoft made one month ago, Novell has announced that its version of the OpenOffice.org software suite will support Microsoft's Office Open XML format.
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Details of the Microsoft-Novell Linux deal inked last November became public this week as the Linux vendor filed its annual report and SEC 10K documents. The filings offer access to the agreement Novell signed with Microsoft to distribute SuSE Linux without any risk of Microsoft patent claims.
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Microsoft is offering updates Wednesday on the progress of interoperability initiatives, including the Interoperability Executive Customer Council (IEC) and the Interop Vendor Alliance (IVA).The company's announcement is "a way of taking stock after a year of fairly intensive activity," said Tom Robertson, Microsoft general manager for interoperability and standards.Formed last year, the IEC features 41 members from governments and corporations who work with Microsoft executives and product teams. IEC is meeting in Redmond, Wash. this week.According to Microsoft, IEC has addressed more than 60 issues in its four defined work streams, which include:* Office productivity and collaboration tools to ensure that tools can exchange documents and enable collaboration and document management across systems * Developer tools and run time, in which application development has been boosted across platforms and systems * Security and identity management with the promoting of security across many identity platforms * Systems management through enabling end-to-end, cross-platform service managementHighlights in security and ID management include Microsoft collaboration with industry partners Fraunhofer-Institute FOKUS, ThoughtWorks, and Zend Technologies to develop open-source interoperability projects on information cards for Sun's Java language, Ruby, PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), and C-module. These initiatives will give users better control over personal information on the Web, Microsoft said."We're ultimately trying to provide people with better control over their personal information on the Web and improve the trustworthiness of Web-based interaction," Robertson said.In the system management area, Microsoft acquired enterprise management company Engyro to incorporate monitoring products into Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager 2007.The IVA, launched in November 2006, discusses mutual customer feedback and focuses on technical collaboration to resolve interoperability challenges through scenario-based testing, Microsoft said. Companies like Linspire, Sun, and AMD participate.At the Interop New York 2007 conference this week, an IVA pavilion will showcase collaborations, such as EMC, CA, and Microsoft streamlining management of heterogeneous systems, including Linux, Oracle, JBoss, and Windows. This is being done via a Systems Management Interoperability Lab.Also, IVA members Centrify, Quest Software, and Microsoft worked to demonstrate how to centrally manage security identities across Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, and Windows. Cross-product federation is being demonstrated as well by several members as part of a federated identity initiative.To advance portal document repository collaboration, IVA members Merido, Microsoft, and others have shown how to identify and collaborate on documents across portals and repositories.Also, Microsoft began working to deliver interoperability by design based on commitment to XML in 2005. Since then, the company has announced more than 30 interoperability deliverables including moving dozens of specifications to the OSP (Open Specification Promise), interoperability projects like Linux and Windows virtualization and management work being done by Microsoft and Novell, Microsoft said.Microsoft is announcing on Wednesday that OSP is being extended to hypercall API in Windows Server Virtualization. This applies virtualization to further enable interoperability across commercial and open-source software solutions, Microsoft said.Microsoft's interoperability efforts have not been without criticism. A deal with Novell on interoperability between Suse Linux and Windows, featuring payments going between the two companies, has drawn criticism in the open-source community as a concession to Microsoft.Robertson said Microsoft has made a lot of progress with interoperability, detailing with issues that are not universally easy to address. But he acknowledged not every single issue will be solved.
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(InfoWorld) - Leaders of Microsoft's strategy to make its products more interoperable with competitive technologies said the company still hopes to strike a Linux pact with Red Hat similar to the partnerships it's forged with Linux vendors Novell, Xandros, and Linspire. "We'd love to do the same deal with Red Hat," said Tom Robertson, general manager of corporate interoperability and standards at Microsoft in an interview Friday. "We're always open to talking with them." That sentiment so far has not been the same on Red Hat's end, as the company has said it's not interested in a deal. Red Hat spokeswoman Leigh Day said Friday that is still the case. "We continue to believe that open source and the innovation it represents should not be subject to an unsubstantiated tax that lacks transparency," she said in an e-mail. Still, some wonder -- as Microsoft lines up the other Linux ducks in a neat little row -- if Red Hat might be next, and rumors suggest a pact might be imminent. Microsoft's latest Linux deal came Thursday in an intellectual property-sharing and interoperabilityÂ agreement with LinspireÂ that would shield the company's customers from Microsoft patent-infringement claims. The deal follows oneÂ struck by Microsoft and Linux distributor XandrosÂ last week, as well asÂ a high-profile and financially significantÂ deal with NovellÂ late last year. Microsoft has said it is seeking these partnerships for a couple of reasons. The one Robertson is most interested in is interoperability, as he -- along with Jean Paoli, general manager, interoperability and XML architecture -- is in charge of Microsoft's 18-month company-wide strategy in this area. Robertson said Microsoft customers have demanded the company address interoperability issues with other companies' software, including open source, and that IP (intellectual property) in those products is a concern for them. "If you look across the industry, you see companies working together to address IP on behalf of their customer base," he said. Microsoft has publicly said that Linux and other open source softwareÂ violates 235 of the company's patents. But rather than seek litigation as a way to settle these IP claims, Microsoft is striking these individual deals, Robertson said. However, much has been made of the fact that the company has not publicly disclosed any of the patents it claims open source software is violating. Robertson would not address why Microsoft will not show its patents and stopped short of claiming the deals with Novell, Linspire, and Xandros prove those companies are indeed violating Microsoft IP. None of the Linux companies will say so, either, and Novell in fact has vehemently denied infringement. This discrepancy is one reason some feel Red Hat will never sign up for an indemnification deal with Microsoft. The size and business viability of the companies that have signed on is another. Novell was flagging when its deal was struck -- and the company has continued to wane even since -- and some familiar with how it happened said it was a bailout to save the vendor from being split up and sold piecemeal. Indeed, Novell's U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing about the deal revealed that Novell got $348 million up front from Microsoft for patent cooperation and Linux coupons, while having to shell out only $40 million to Microsoft in return. Though Microsoft will not comment on the financial terms of deals with Xandros and Linspire, those familiar with the agreements said those companies also received financial compensation from Microsoft. This begs the question that if interoperability and protecting customers are Microsoft's ultimate goals for the deals, as Robertson said, why is the company so interested in Linux companies that ultimately don't affect that many customers? Many -- particularly those in the Linux camp -- suspect Microsoft is trying to make it appear that open source distributors are violating Microsoft IP to vilify them in an effort to dissuade customers from using Linux and other open source technologies. Bruce Perens, a longtime Linux and open source advocate, said Microsoft is giving Linux companies that are on the edge of going out of business money to create the illusion that Linux vendors are stealing its IP. Perens is a vice president at SourceLabs, a company that provides testing, management, and certification of open source software to users. "Here is Microsoft out collecting the losers in the Linux business and paying them money so they can ... paint open source as music pirates out there using Microsoft technology without a license," he said. "I think they're out to scare people." Even if this is the case, it take two to tango, and it's important to note that companies such as Novell, Linspire, and Xandros benefit in various ways from their deals with Microsoft. Aside from any financial compensation, the companies also gain access to Microsoft technology that would make their own Linux products more viable in the marketplace, analysts said. "These companies want the deals with Microsoft because it will make the products more attractive and more compatible with the Windows world," said Michael Silver, an analyst with Gartner. "It's pretty clear that there is definitely value for these companies."
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(InfoWorld) - Cross-platform virtualization is top of the list of projects that a new joint development lab operated by Microsoft and Novell will work on, executives said. The companies expect to announce the opening of the lab on Wednesday. They firstÂ announcedÂ plans for the joint labÂ back in November 2006, when they formed a controversialÂ patent-licensing and interoperability agreement. The companies have already begun to work together on several interoperability projects, including one that will ensure that Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 will run well on Suse Linux Enterprise Server and that Suse Linux will run on Server 2008 in virtualized environments. The capability, however, won't be available until after Microsoft ships the server next year and then releases its virtualization capability within 180 days after that. The new lab is located in Cambridge, Mass., and is currently is staffed by two directors and five test engineers. The companies hope to hire three more by the end of the year. Engineers from both companies can remotely access resources in the lab and contribute to the work there, said Suzanne Forsberg, the lab's co-director for Novell. She shares director duties with Tom Hanrahan, director of Linux interoperability at Microsoft. In addition to the virtualization project, the engineers will also work on document format translator capabilities that will allow sharing between various document standards such as open XML and OpenOffice. The goal of the original agreement between Microsoft and Novell was to ensure that operating systems from the companies work better in environments where they co-exist. The lab will have 80 servers so that engineers can test how their developments will operate in an environment similar to an enterprise data center, Hanrahan said. XandrosÂ andÂ LinspireÂ have also struck partnerships with Microsoft, similar to the deal with Novell. Red Hat, however, and others Linux vendors, have said theyÂ aren't interested in partnering with Microsoft.
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DENVER â Microsoft is developing a portal-like interface for its identity management platform that will let users self-manage their identity information and provision network services.
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Novell has spent years battling Microsoft. Maybe this time it will work.
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Sun Microsystems and Microsoft, once bitter rivals, are growing ever closer through interoperability agreements that aim to make life easier for their respective customers.
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Interoperability is the great challenge facing the open-source movement.
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Revised docs handed in Microsoft has handed in revised interoperability information to the European Commission.â¦
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Unthinkable a year ago, perhaps, but there are currently indications that Microsoft is starting to think about identity management systems in terms of interoperability. A meeting  later this month with vendors and other organizations such as the Liberty Alliance promises to be productive.
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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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Under the effort announced today, the two will share APIs and develop protocols to enable better interoperability between Microsoft's Network Access Protection technology and Cisco's Network Admission Control technology.
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Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) is poised to launch the latest version of its SuSE Linux operating system, providing new features designed to appeal to both Linux neophytes and current users of the open-source desktop software.