Interoperability Conversations – Read Me First

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:44:18 Z

Interoperability Conversations – Read Me

Welcome to the Interoperability Conversations Forum!

Interoperability is a critical issue as technological forces – such as mobility, mixed environments, and web services – interact with the reality of a distributed workforce, return on IT investment, and always-on/always-connected expectations. As a direct byproduct of the Internet's ubiquity, virtually every system and product has become interconnected in some way to many other systems and products. Therefore, interoperability between disparate systems has become a vital concern.

Whether you are an individual, enterprise customer, a government IT professional, or in any one of the many thousands of different roles in the worldwide connected system, there is a remarkably consistent set of requirements surrounding interoperability. These requirements span economic, social, and technical areas:

· Freedom to choose best-of-breed tools based on functionality and business need

· Control and ownership of data and the ability for that data to flow seamlessly from one business application to another

· Improved efficiency and agility: interoperability saves time in implementations and makes it easier to adapt to rapid changes in the business landscape

· Increased choice by reducing the possibility of a single vendor lock-in for IT products and consulting services

· The creation of a strong ecosystem that drives innovation and creates opportunity

· Access to the latest technology for efficiency and new capabilities

When these needs are satisfied by the marketplace, interoperability results in more choice, competition, and innovation.

On this forum, moderators will address questions and respond to requests for information and, as appropriate, bring in experts to join the dialogue. We ask that participants be respectful of all postings to keep discussions meaningful and productive. Please note that it is not appropriate to discuss anyone’s future product plans in this forum.

Resources

· For an overview of Microsoft’s Interoperability work, go here

· To see Microsoft’s Interoperability Principles announcement, go here

· For information about the Microsoft Communications Protocol Program, go here

· For product support at Microsoft, go here

· For questions regarding promotion of modeling and simulation interoperability and reuse for the benefit of a broad range of Modeling & Simulation (M&S) communities, go here

· For an overview of Microsoft’s Standards work, go here

· For information on the Open Source Interoperability Initiative, go here

· For information on Open Source at Microsoft, go here

· For a wiki definition of Interop, go here

· For information on Microsoft’s Open Specification Promise go here