Microsoft and Sun mark one year of collaboration
On Friday 13 May, Sun and Microsoft provided the second update on their year-long collaboration since the announcement of
their landmark 10-year cooperation agreement in April 2004. In contrast to the last update in December, Scott McNealy and Steve Ballmer – amidst much on-stage bonhomie – were in a position to discuss some tangible results from their companies’ cooperation. The bulk of the update focussed on Web SSO (single sign-on), including an interoperability demonstration, but they also highlighted progress with management interoperability (discussed in more detail in our report
Microsoft bids for role as enterprise management player) based on
WS-Management, and hinted at future plans in areas such as storage management.
Continued demonstrations of progress, which are meaningful to customers and partners alike, are important, since the rapprochement between the two companies is critical for both - although Sun's need is more pressing than Microsoft's. For Sun, interoperability with key Microsoft technologies is an absolute requirement for it continuing to be seen as a viable supplier; whereas for Microsoft it's more a matter of credibility which will make it much easier for it to be seen as a serious provider of enterprise-class software, as well as providing it with some ammunition in its interoperability battles with regulators in the US and Europe.
It's easy to infer from the Sun-Microsoft announcements, that both companies see IBM a common enemy; and that their interoperability drive is a means to push their technologies to the top of the tree when it comes to middleware for the new generation of open, service-based business software. But the truth is more sophisticated than that. For while Sun is clearly threatened by IBM from a large number of directions - not least, in IBM's promotion of Linux as a Solaris substitute - Microsoft's relationship with IBM is (for the moment at least) a collaborative and productive one. The truth is that Sun and Microsoft together need to present such a front to the industry, because a great number of the services and integration partners that they both share, are so implacably pitted against IBM Global Services and Business Consulting Services. To emphasise this point, senior executives from Accenture, EDS and NEC joined McNealy and Ballmer to praise the collaboration.
To drive their collaboration forward, the two companies set up a small "Technology Advisory Council" consisting of ten, large mutual customers. Identity management was the top-rated issue of this group. What was announced today, though, is really only the start of what these and other customers will want. Web SSO is nice but in reality it's only likely to be interesting in a minority of situations. In reality application-to-application identity federation is really important; as is single sign-on for non-Web applications. Furthermore, the interoperability protocols announced (
Web Single Sign-On Metadata Exchange - Web SSO MEX - Protocol and Web Single Sign-On Interoperability Profile - Web SSO Interop Profile) provide a bridge between the Microsoft (and IBM)-backed
WS-Federation specification and the Liberty Alliance’s
Liberty ID-FF, which wouldn’t be necessary if Microsoft were to follow the lead of IBM and commit to the Liberty Alliance.
In addition to the work on browser-based Web SSO, Sun announced that it has licensed Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol which it plans to implement in its Sun Ray thin client product to allow them to access Windows Terminal Services running on Windows Server 2003. One of the obvious targets for Sun Ray are the low-spec PCs running Windows NT Workstation, 95 and 98 which still exist in enterprises of all sizes. It is somewhat of an unfortunate coincidence (or perhaps not) that Microsoft chose this week to start talking in public about its plans for Eiger, the code name for a ‘lean’ – not thin – client version of Windows XP designed – you guessed it – to run Windows Terminal Services and browser-based applications on low-spec PCs.
So, with one year down and nine to go, Sun and Microsoft are beginning to deliver. The somewhat tardy progress to date has been put down to ‘getting to know you’ teething problems, particularly amongst sceptical engineers. That excuse will no longer hold water and the two companies are going to have to work hard to provide truly business-meaningful interoperability, whilst remaining – as McNealy and Ballmer were both at pains to point out – ardent competitors.
