Java and .Net to be interoperable

BANGALORE: Following the signing up of Sun and Microsoft's 10 year pact to collaborate on technology a few months back, Sun Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy announced the issues that will be addressed in the first phase of their partnership at the JavaOne 2004 conference.

Keeping 'interoperability' as the key issue McNealy said that both the vendors are working on a model to facilitate interoperability between the LDAP model of the directory and identity management products in Sun's Java Enterprise System and Microsoft ActiveDirectory. Said an online report.

With the software being interoperable a user's authentication information will travel across software infrastructure enabling him to log into a network without having to remember multiple passwords.

Single sign-on has always been a tricky issue mainly because of lack of consensus between vendors on how to build a standard infrastructure. Analysts are of the view that Sun and Microsoft's initiative to bridge .Net and Java based infrastructure would help many end-user companies and open up new business opportunities.

McNealy also informed that in the second phase both the companies would look at integrating Web services built using Java and .Net platforms.