Microsoft and Sun Microsystems spent a lot of time at each other’s throats in legal battles, but last year the two companies formed a partnership which is now starting to show its results.
In April of last year, Sun and Microsoft formed a 10-year agreement to make their software systems compatible with each other. This was included in the Microsoft’s $2 billion settlement with Sun ending the companies’ rivalry.
Sun Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced a series of measures to enhance product interoperability, including the development of new specifications that enable Web single sign-on (SSO) between systems that use Liberty and WS- Web service architectures.
The two CEOs said that over the past year the companies have made considerable progress building a productive work relationship at various levels and setting the foundation for a number of initiatives to address customer interoperability needs.
“Over the past year we have worked to establish great communication at all levels between our companies, from regular executive meetings to in-depth working sessions with our engineers,” said Ballmer. “In the first year, we’ve moved from the courtroom to the computer lab. Now we’re moving from the lab to the market.”
“Sun and Microsoft are working together … and quite well at that,” said McNealy. “A year ago, the skeptics doubted that we could agree on the shape of the table, much less collaborate on solving some of the industry’s toughest problems. Surprise — we did just that and today we’ve taken a huge step forward.”
“Single sign-on experience between the Solaris-based Operating System, Sun Java Enterprise System and Microsoft Windows Server has been customers’ top request,” McNealy added. “This is just the beginning of a long list of projects we’re working on.”
In a press release the two companies noted their strong outreach to customers in developing the relationship as well as identifying key areas and projects. Over the past year, top executives from both companies have spoken regularly to customers to get a better understanding of priorities and concerns.
Chris is a staff writer for murdok. Visit murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
