Microsoft opens Interop lab in Bangalore

BANGALORE: In an effort to address interoperability requirements of enterprise customers, Microsoft Corp. today announced the opening of an Interoperability Lab in India.

The lab, which is co-located at the Microsoft Technical Center in Bangalore, would enable customers plan and test interoperable solution across infrastructure, application and management layers. This announcement was made at the Microsoft Interoperability Conclave held here today.

In addition to the interop lab, the company also made another significant announcement in an area that it has largely ignored-Open Source.

To encourage research and development of open source applications on the Windows platform, the company signed MoUs under its the Open Source Technology program with academic institutions including IT Kanpur, IIT Guwahati, IIIT Hyderabad and IIIT Bangalore .

Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer, Microsoft, said that interoperability is becoming a necessity in today's heterogeneous IT environment that involves multiple vendors. "Just like all human population in India cannot be expected to talk in one language, all IT environments cannot have just one vendor."

"Interoperability is as critical a challenge as security and reliability to the health of an organization's IT environment. With open dialogue and on ground work with the industry and academia, we hope to collectively address this emerging area," said Ravi Venkatesan, chairman, Microsoft India.

Interoperability issues are also posing challenges to implementation of e-governance programs in the country. R Chandrashekhar, additional secretary (e-governance), DIT, said, " Localization and multi-language support, lack of technical skills in the government and multiple vendor infrastructure are some of the issues," he said.