X
Business

Microsoft: two views

As noted in a previous post, Microsoft is now actively campaigning for interoperability between various vendor's platforms, not just its own. Optimize recently ran this point/counterpoint to the simple question: "Is Microsoft integrating with others?
Written by Joe McKendrick, Contributing Writer
As noted in a previous post, Microsoft is now actively campaigning for interoperability between various vendor's platforms, not just its own. Optimize recently ran this point/counterpoint to the simple question: "Is Microsoft integrating with others?"
Yes:
Mark Zielazinski, CIO, El Camino Hospital: "Microsoft has been gaining ground in integrating its products with tools from other vendors. After all, the purpose of its BizTalk server is to communicate with incompatible, third-party server applications. It illustrates that the company understands that the old all-Microsoft-or-nothing approach will no longer cut it and that in today's market, easier integration means increased customer satisfaction."
No:
Jeff Gould, CEO, Peerstone Research: "Yes, Microsoft is diligently implementing the same alphabet soup of Web-services standards as every other software vendor. It has no choice. Web services and XML are now the mandatory public face that all applications must present in order to be admitted to the sandlot. But it would be premature to conclude that Microsoft has abandoned its strategy of locking in profits by locking in customers. On the contrary, Microsoft is as committed as ever to developing a software stack for the enterprise server, built entirely from its own products."
Microsoft's new interoperability site can be found here.
Editorial standards