BARCELONA, Spain—Microsoft has formed a new group, the Interoperability Vendor Alliance, to enhance interoperability between Microsoft and non-Microsoft systems across workflows and operational processes.
Microsoft will announce the move at the IT Forum here at TechEd Europe on Nov. 14.
The initial members of the vendor alliance are SugarCRM, Citrix Systems, Kernel Networks, Network Appliance and Siemens Networks, but membership will be open to others that want to join.
“This is just another example of how we are enabling interoperability around all the technologies we have,” Andy Lees, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for server and tools marketing, told eWEEK in an interview.
Click here to read about SugarCRM’s decision to use a Microsoft Shared Source license.
“We wanted to formalize the process so that we can get interoperability feedback from other vendors, some of which will be partners, with others [being] competitors, so that we have a formal process whereby they can give us feedback on the areas in which they want better interoperability,” Lees said.
The initial areas of focus will include common interoperability challenges like cross-platform systems management, single sign-on, data presentation, portal integration, storage and identity management, he said.
“Over the last 18 months we have made interoperability a big focus in terms of making our products as interoperable as possible, [working on] utilization standards and advancing these where they don’t exist,” Lees said.
The formation of a vendor alliance follows the June announcement of Microsoft’s Interoperability Executive Customer Council, which held its first meeting recently.
Read the full story on eWEEK.com: Microsoft Forms Interoperability Vendor Alliance.
