Microsoft Takes Next Step In Delivering Interoperability
Today Microsoft made a substantive announcement about interoperability and I’d like to discuss the elements of the announcement on my blog.
As many of the readers of this blog know, I have been working on interop issue for MS over the past 2 years. I went back and dug around my old posts and would point you to May 10, 2006 to give some perspective on our thinking on interop. I point this out to emphasize how an announcement of increased interoperability efforts in February of 2008 is an evolution of long-standing work and in-line with a significant progression of work on this subject.
All of our work around interoperability must meet the needs of customers, partners, governments, and competitors. There are always so many facets to any step of this significance. In fact it may take months if not years of ongoing product improvement and development to see the full implications of the announcements today.
When I consider the reach of the principles announced today, it strikes me that:
1) Microsoft recognizes the responsibilities it has regarding its high-volume products and is acting accordingly
2) Competitors, partners, and anyone producing software (commercially or not) need to receive practical benefit from the principles
3) Customers will have the opportunity to derive greater value out of their software investments through improved interoperability
Of course it is always about details, details, details. The basic rundown of the interoperability principles is as follows:
1) Open Connections to Microsoft High-Volume Products
Anyone building software should be able to exchange data with a Microsoft high-volume product using the same mechanisms that any other Microsoft product would use.
2) Data Portability
Once information is stored in a Microsoft product, that data will be made available for access so that it may be used in another vendor’s software.
3) Support for Standards
For years, Microsoft has spoken about the fact that standards are one of many important ways to achieve interop – this principle establishes clear guidelines for how a given standard will be supported. Customer input will be critical in the decision of which standards to support.
4) Open Engagement On Interoperability
Interoperability is not possible if only one party participates. The path forward for any interested party in interoperability is through ongoing, constructive dialog about the technologies, business relationships, legal agreements, and standards work that will ultimately enable real-world interoperability.
The myriad of details in the announcement can be found here.
There are many significant elements to this announcement that merit deeper discussion. Let’s just take the Standards piece as an example. In order to enhance broad compatibility, Microsoft will work closely with customers through executive councils and other mechanisms to hear what standards the customers would like to see implemented. Furthermore, we will be more proactive in thinking about what MS technologies should be standardized earlier in our processes. Additionally, transparency will be improved by our committing to document how we support the standards that do make it into a shipping product. Thus there will be documentation that describes not only what spec we are saying we adhere to, but also discuss if and how we may have done any extensions to the spec relative to interoperability. And finally, all of this will be posted to our website so that devs can get the info without signing a license or paying a royalty to see that info.
Fundamentally today’s announcement will improve how Microsoft’s products and technologies mesh into complex IT environments. Ultimately IT organizations will end up with greater choice of solutions because of this.
Other blogs worth checking out on this:
Comments
Anonymous
February 21, 2008
Of course a committment like this looks very nice to me but so far it is pretty empty. Is it a marketing wrapper or will it lead to tangible changes?Anonymous
February 21, 2008
PingBack from http://www.davidkelly.ie/blog/2008/02/21/microsoft-announcement-on-interoperability/Anonymous
February 21, 2008
Working hard for 2 years, Jason, and what -- please tell me what -- has changed? You've merely moved the goalposts to Sharepoint | Exchange and created a committee. Oh, and given away specs to old, useless formats when the specs were already available. (Well, I couldn't get copies -- but even your secretary knows I'm trying to put Microsoft out of business ;-) I wish you luck next week at The Battle of Geneva (BRM). If you win there, you'll be unimpeded to Browser World War II -- where document interoperability is soon to be re-defined. Congratulations on the right decision to get back in the browser business, but I wish your browser guys would respect W3C standards with just one ounce of sincerity. You're about to tell me that innovation is more important than interoperability ... It's a hollow day, all tolled. I'm not impressed.Anonymous
February 21, 2008
stop with the "cheap" talking make significant steps , example: support ODF natively in Office 2007 port Office to Linux, etc.Anonymous
February 21, 2008
The comment has been removedAnonymous
February 21, 2008
This morning, Steve Ballmer, Ray Ozzie, Bob Muglia and Brad Smith announced important changes to ourAnonymous
February 21, 2008
This morning, Steve Ballmer, Ray Ozzie, Bob Muglia and Brad Smith have announced important changes toAnonymous
February 21, 2008
This morning, Steve Ballmer, Ray Ozzie, Bob Muglia and Brad Smith have announced important changes toAnonymous
February 21, 2008
New post at blogs.msdn.comAnonymous
February 21, 2008
Majora! Ieri s-au luat niște decizii importante pentru viitorul Microsoft și rolul său pe piața IT. PeAnonymous
February 22, 2008
Microsoft anunció la estratégia de Interoperabilidad mas importante de su historia, aunque MicrosoftAnonymous
February 24, 2008
I have been reading on the Interop annoucement and its awesome. One of the things that really interestedAnonymous
February 24, 2008
I have been reading on the Interop annoucement and its awesome. One of the things that really interestedAnonymous
February 26, 2008
Even Linus is positive http://software.silicon.com/os/0,39024651,39170175,00.htm?r=1Anonymous
March 04, 2008
Here's the news link . This is nice to see. Jason Matusow blogged this .Anonymous
March 04, 2008
Here's the news link . This is nice to see. Jason Matusow blogged this .Anonymous
March 06, 2008
Busy, busy, busy. So many things going on at once. I have been meaning to write about a few items allAnonymous
March 11, 2008
As last week came to a close, I blogged about a few examples where Microsoft was applying the InteroperabilityAnonymous
March 11, 2008
As last week came to a close, I blogged about a few examples where Microsoft was applying the InteroperabilityAnonymous
April 08, 2008
Just a quick note. MS is continuing to follow-through on the interop principles commitment made earlierAnonymous
June 01, 2008
Today Microsoft made a substantive announcement about interoperability and I’d like to discuss the elements of the announcement on my blog. The Announcement As many of the readers of this blog know, I have been working on interop issue for MS over th