Microsoft Advocates Vendor-to-Vendor Sharing, for the Good of Windows

Published: November 15, 2006

by Alex Woodie

If you thought that just what the world needed about now was another alliance to foster greater interoperability among leaders in the IT industry, then Microsoft has answered your prayers, because that's exactly what the software giant announced yesterday at the TechEd Europe conference in Barcelona, Spain.

More specifically, the new Interop Vendor Alliance unveiled by Microsoft is aimed at bringing software and hardware vendors together so that they might enhance interoperability with Microsoft Windows systems on behalf of their customers.

This list includes a who's who of big names in the IT industry, including AMD, BEA Systems, Citrix, NEC, Novell (Microsoft's new best friend), Sun Microsystems (still one of Microsoft's dearest friends), and 17 others. Notably absent from the list was Intel and the large system vendors that hawk the lion's share of X86 and X64 gear: Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM.

"Sharing" is the key word for Interop Vendor Alliance, as in vendors sharing their technologies to make better Windows applications and more integrated Windows environments.

Specific goals include: developing a venue for members to tease feedback out of customers relating to interoperability challenges; enabling "scenario-based" testing for interoperability, including tests for systems management, virtualization, identity management, data integration, storage management, portal integration, and interoperability of developer tools; and a portal developed where vendors can post best-practice guides, white papers, and case studies about interoperability and interoperability testing.

Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Server and Tools business at Microsoft, says Interoperability is a global IT issue that affects how companies streamline their business processes, get closer to customers and partners, and finish off mergers and acquisitions. "These challenges typically involve making a wide variety of software from many different vendors work together," he says. "By bringing together organizations and vendors representing a broad set of interoperability capabilities, the Interop Vendor Alliance will help identify opportunities for the creation and delivery of real-world solutions that will improve the flow of information across the enterprise."

To sign up for the Interop Vendor Alliance or to read more information about it, go to www.microsoft.com/interop.