Interoperability is a property referring to the ability of diverse systems and organizations to work together (inter-operate). According to Microsoft Research: For Business Customers, (after reliability, security and total cost of ownership…) interoperability is one of the key factors customers rely on to in perceiving the total concept of value in a solution.
Interoperability by Design (a Microsoft Initiative)
http://www.microsoft.com/interop
ECONOMIC, SOCIAL & TECHNICAL NEEDS IN COMMON
(who is interoperability for?)
*Individuals
*Enterprises
*Government
*IT Pros
*CIO/CTO/Information Executives
What are some of the needs expressed by the community relating to interoperability?
*Freedom of choice based on functionality and business need
* Data portability & easy flow of information
**Owners want to be in control of their data
**Owners want to be able to extract their data
* Improved efficiency & agility
**work faster
**leverage older systems
**more quickly access and leverage data
*Reducing single vendor lock-in
**Microsoft is improving in it’s ability to connect to other systems and other vendors to become a cross platform company that supports other systems and vendors.
*Access to latest technology
*Strong ecosystem of to drive innovation
Interoperability results in more choice, competition, & innovation.
===INTEROPERABILITY – A HISTORY OF INTEROPERABILITY OVER TIME===
*PC’s (being islands of information) begin to have interoperability between applications and the devices connected to the PC(printers, word, excel, etc…)
*PC’s begin to communicate with other devices on the local area network
*PC’s begin to communicate with other PC’s across the Internet (xml is a key element to data exchange/interoperability on the web)
*PC’s begin to share metadata using web services across a dispersed infrastructure using secure trust relationships
MICROSOFT’s INTEROPERABILITY BY DESIGN INITIATIVE
Listening, innovating and providing access
*Community Engagement
*Standards Bodies
**Microsoft knows that in order to provide interoperability between products
*Innovation
**whether open source, partners or competitors, Microsoft is committed to the communication and relationships necessary to retain interoperability. A new commitment to Transparency is now being leveraged to assure interoperability with these entities such as:
***Documentation,
***API Documentation
***Binary Documentation
The new horizon of interoperability includes competitors to Microsoft such as IBM, Sun, Oracle, OpenOffice.org, Novell, Adobe
===MICROSOFT’S INTEROPERABILITY FOUNDATION===
Listening to our customers & the industry, taking pragmatic steps
Interoperability principals will be highly focused into Microsoft’s six "high-volume" products which include (Vista, Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, Microsoft Office)
THE INTEROPERABILITY PRINCIPALS
*Open Connections
*Data Portability
*Enhanced Support for Standards
*Open Engagement
Bridge Building
*Support for Mixed Environments
*Solving key Customer Issues with Industry Partners
*Innovative Community Licensing
*Announcement of Windows Principals
IP Licensing, Standards Support, Protocol Licensing
===MICROSOFT INTEROPERABILITY PRINCIPALS===
*Ensuring Open Connections
*Data Portability
*Enhanced Support for Standards
*Open Engagement
These principals are most applicable in Microsoft’s highest volume products.
Windows Vista
(including the .NET Framework)
Microsoft Office 2007
Windows Server 2008
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
===PRINCIPAL 1: Open Connections to Microsoft Products===
read more: http://msdn.microsoft.com/openprotocols
Key actions
*Open Access to APIs and Protocols (that are leveraged to communicate with our high volume products)
**Full documentation of the API’s and protocols used by high-volume Microosft products available on the web for free without the need for any license
*Anyone can call the documented APIs without any need for a patent license
*Microsoft patents in these protocols will be made available on RAND terms at very low royalty rates
*Covenant not to sue open source developers for development and non-commercial distribution of implementations of these Open Protocols
*Proactive timetable
**>30k pages of documentation are already (2008-06-13) available on MSDN about WSPP, MCPP
**More documentation will be added in the coming months on the following protocols: Office 2007, .NET Framework-related, Exchange Server 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007
Find out more at http://msdn.microsoft.com/openprotocols
To Summarize the Benefits to Microsoft Partners:
Greater opportunity & Choice
*Better integration with high-volume products
*OPEN ACCESS: More information about Microsoft patents in protocols and access to RAND licensing at low rates
*RAND PATENTS: Enables people to decide whether to work around or use Microsoft technology
*OPEN SOURCE COMPATIBILITY: Open source developers have royalty free access to patenst in protocols for development and non-commercial purposes.
===PRINCIPAL 2: Data Portability===
read more: http://www.microsoft.com/interop/docs/officebinaryformats.mspx
Key actions
*Input/Output Functionality
**Ability to extract the data in high volume products
*Use of Standardized or Published Formats
**Microsoft to use standardized or published formats to enable data portability
**Documentation of these formats available on the web for free access by anyone without a license
*Patents used identified and made available on RAND terms
*New APIs for Office 2007 enables third parties to plug in new document formats
Data portability is about empowering developers and empowering our customers to do the things that "they want to do" with their data.
Benefits of Data Portability in broad terms means support for Open Formats, Industry Standard Formats, Open Import/Export of User Data, Document Format Defaults (changeable in Microsoft applications).
Find out more at: http://www.microsoft.com/interop/docs/officebinaryformats.mspx
===PRINCIPAL 3: Standards Support===
read more: http://www.microsoft.com/standards
Key Actions:
*Microsoft intends to use developer feedback and customer input to determine which standards (open source/web/commercial) it supports.
*Open Access to standards documentation on the web
**Open Access to standards documentation on web
**List of key standards supported in high-volume products
**Documentation of how those standards are supported available on the web
** Extensions related to interoperability with other implementations fully documented
*Identify patents in extensions and RAND licensing of them
*Standards support consistent with principles
Enhanced standard support benefits users and companies by providing Support for Key Standards, Industry Compatibility, Open Documentation on Extensions, Open Access
NOTES ABOUT OFFICE OPEN XML:
the work with OpenXML (now an ISO standard) is one of Microsoft’s key pushes within Standards Bodies. Microsoft intends on letting the market, users, and the community determine how OpenXML is developed and leveraged in the future.
further reading:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/feb08/02-21ConCallTranscript.mspx
Enhanced Standards in Identity Management
http://www.brreg.no/porvoo13/
http://www.brreg.no/porvoo13/documents/digital_id_craig_wittenberg.pdf
===PRINCIPAL 4: Engagement with Open Communities===
read more: http://www.microsoft.com/interop/forum
Key Actions
*Open discussions about interoperability issues of importance
*Open Source Interoperability Initiative
**Promote engagement with open source communities
**Broad range of activities, facilities and opportunities
*Interoperability forum
*Web-based forum to discuss interoperability topics
*Document Interoperability Initiative
*Collaboration among vendors to drive real-world progress towards interoperability between document format implementations
*Events in Boston, Korea and Europe, with more to come
In a broad sense, Microsoft is at long last asking the open source development community to join in the conversation by fully supporting and Open Source Interoperability Initiative, hosting an Interoperability Forum, and attempting to fully Document the Interoperability Initiative so as to provide an openly available resource to the community from which to reference this progress.
TAKING ACTION TO IMPROVE INTEROPERABILITY
Open Connections to key Microsoft Products
*High Volume Products APIs & Protocols
**products include: Vista, Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, Microsoft Office
Data Portability
*Input/Output Support
*Format Documentation
*API’s for default format
Standards Support
*Community Input on which Standards are used and developed in Microsoft products
*Open Access to Standards Used
Engagement with Open Communities
*Interop Executive Customer Council
*Interop Vendor Alliance
*Open Source Interop Initiative
*Document Interop Initiative
*Interop Forum
EXAMPLES OF COLLABORATION TAKING PLACE NOW!
Sun microsystems
*Technical Collaboration
**both companies will provide access to aspects of each companies server technologies
**ensure that information can be easily shared between most important protocols such as Active Directory and System Identity Server
*Interoperability Lab (announced 2008-03)
*Microsoft Communications Protocol Program
*windows Certification for Sun Server
**Windows is now certified for Sun Server
*Future Collaboration of Java and .NET
*Patents and IP
**both organizations are able to license each others technologies or work around the patents
*Legal Settlements
**both companies are moving quickly to settle any legal issues currently active
*Interoperability Agreement
**Open XML/Open Document
**Novell has released a translator for Open Document Format and Open XML
**Translator available on sourceforge.org
*Interoperabilty Lab
**Both companies are sharing a lab to optimize products between the companies
*Accessibility Agreements
*Patent Agreement
**users that are leveraging SUSE Linux are provided indemnification from Microsoft patents from the business perspective
*Business Collaboration Agreement
**example: Microsoft’s Hyper-V supports Novell SUSE Linux. Novell in return is supporting Windows Server 2008 in Novell’s HyperVisor technology.
