JBoss and Microsoft Strike Interoperability Agreement -- ADTmag

JBoss and Microsoft Strike Interoperability Agreement

By ADT Staff
September 28, 2005

On Tuesday, JBoss and Microsoft announced plans to enhance the interoperability between JBoss Enterprise Middleware System (JEMS) and Microsoft Windows Server products and to increase JBoss support for the Windows Server operating system.

The agreement signals a shift in Microsoft’s battle against open-source software providers from outright provocation and attack to a more cooperative stance.

“JBoss is experiencing tremendous growth and is a driving force of consolidation of the Java market,” says Bill Hilf, director of platform technology strategy at Microsoft. “So it makes sense to work with them on interoperability and optimizing for the Windows Server platform.”

The agreement aims to provide customers with richer functionality and better integration, resulting in a lower cost of ownership, the two companies say. The technology engagement between the companies is expected to include technical assistance and architectural guidance, integrated sign-on and federated identity in Microsoft Active Directory; interoperability using WS-* Web services architecture; a Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager; and optimized performance on SQL Server for users of Hibernate, JBoss’ object/relational mapping technology, and Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0.

And Shaun Connolly, VP of product management, JBoss, adds, “With nearly half our customer base deploying JEMS on Windows Server, either solely or in conjunction with other platforms, it makes sense for us to provide the best experience possible for our mutual customers.”

“We recently assisted Swedish Medical Center with our physician portal solution, FirstGateways, which included JBoss Enterprise Middleware System on the Windows platform,” says Dale Will, director of product development for FCG, an outsourcing, consulting, systems implementation and integration provider. “Increased cooperation between Microsoft and JBoss is a great thing from our perspective because it allows us to take advantage of the increased reliability and simplified administration available on the Windows platform, while addressing the challenges facing customers running mixed environments.”