14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is applauding a landmark moment in the evolution of web services interoperability standards, as the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) announced the finalization of the work that started almost a decade ago. With the wrapping up of the final three Web services profiles put together by WS-I, stewardship over all assets, operations and mission is now starting its transition to OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards).
The hope is that WS-I’s efforts will result in interoperability across multiple platforms, operating systems and programming languages, but also in the Cloud.
The Redmond software giant was one of the companies that worked on developing interoperability for standardized specifications that are at the core of Internet’s communication framework.
The “need for the free flow of information across different platforms and programs motivated Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, SAP, HP and a handful of other vendors to form the Web Services Interoperability Organization,” revealed Paul Cotton, Microsoft Partner Group Manager.
“Their goal was to codify the requirements to achieve interoperability, by creating a series of blue prints – or profiles - that developers and engineers could follow whenever they write a software program.”
According to Cotton, the WS-I members started working on the interoperability profiles concomitantly with the standardizing of the same initial web specifications by the W3C and OASIS as the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).
Extremely strong focus was placed on making the guidance as clear as possible. This was necessary so that programmers develop interoperable applications that function in the same manner, rather than interpreting the documentation available to solve problems differently.
Michael Champion, Microsoft Senior Program Manager announced the release of a MSDN section dedicated entirely to web services interoperability.
The Web Service Interoperability site is currently live and open to developers worldwide.
Champion emphasized that the site offers a range of resources including whitepapers designed to detail the level of interoperability between Microsoft’s platform and products and third-party projects.
"Available whitepapers include: Data Type Interoperability Between .NET and Java: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/gg413252.aspx Oracle WebLogic-to-WCF Secure Messaging Interoperability: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/gg413253.aspx IBM WebSphere-to-WCF Secure Messaging Interoperability: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/gg413262.aspx
Standards-Based Interoperability between SAP NetWeaver and Microsoft .NET Framework http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff709807.aspx Metro to WCF Interoperability: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff842400.aspx."