Microsoft Strives for Interoperability
Microsoft made a greater commitment to making its products work better with those on differing platforms by creating the Interoperability Customer Executive Council on Wednesday. The group will be tasked with finding areas for improvement among Microsoft products, as well as the software industry in general.
Customers have been asking for more interoperability as IT environments become more heterogeneous, Microsoft said. As part of the Redmond company's Trustworthy Computing Initiative, products are designed to provide interoperability from the start.
The council would be headed by Server and Tools senior vice president Bob Muglia, and would meet twice a year in Redmond. "The Interoperability Customer Executive Council will help us prioritize areas where we can achieve greater interoperability through product design, collaboration agreements with other companies, standards, and effective licensing of our intellectual property," Muglia said in a statement.
Council members would have direct contact with Microsoft executives and product teams so issues with interoperability within the company's own products are resolved quickly.
Founding members include representatives from Societe Generale, LexisNexis, Kohl's Department Stores, Denmark's Ministry of Finance, Spain's Generalitat de Catalunya and Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), and the states of Wisconsin and Delaware.
Microsoft said it is committing fully to the concept. Recent examples of this include work to support Linux in Virtual Server 2005; technical work in its Open Source Lab and a broader dialog with the community; intellectual property deals with NEC, Sony Ericsson, Nokia and others; and participation and support of open standards in its products.
However, Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox tells partners to ask questions first. "When Microsoft talks about interoperability, it's good to ask what it means," he said. "I don't detect any duplicity, just misunderstanding. Microsoft lives in a Windows world."