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Computing industry heavyweights on Monday announced a plan to create a standardized way for computing resources to “talk” to each other, a move they say will lower the cost of running corporate data centers.The initiative calls for the creation of an XML-based standard, called Service Modeling Language (SML), and its adoption in commercial products, including systems management software, hardware, and application development tools.
The companies involved–BEA Systems, BMC Software, Cisco Systems, Dell, EMC, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems–published a draft SML specification on Monday and pledged to support it in the future.
The goal of SML is to establish a lingua franca for computing resources–servers, networking gear, applications and the like–to exchange operating information, such as security requirements or performance problems.
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The basis for SML is Microsoft’s own XML specification, called Systems Definition Model. The company has already built support for SDM in Visual Studio 2005; all future management software and future operating systems will use SML starting in 2007, Tatarinov said.
Kirill Tatarinov is Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Windows Enterprise Management Division. The formal press release has more details.
Today’s the start of the European Commission hearing on Microsoft’s appeal of the large fines slapped on them for noncompliance with the EC’s antitrust directives and the two sides were getting in some verbal jabs before the bout started. Microsoft lead off with a press release, Tech Companies Say Microsoft Documents Enable Product Development, that quoted six firms, including EMC, as saying that Microsoft’s technical documentation of server protocols was just dandy:
The companies say they have successfully used that documentation to develop and release interoperable software products to the marketplace.
The EC seemed to be caught flatfooted, but quickly fired back:
“The reason for this hearing is purely a media exercise for Microsoft,” Cecilio Madero, senior Commission official leading the case at the two-day closed hearing, told reporters.
Then as the parties entered the hearing there was more:
“We have complied beyond the requirements of the Commission’s decision,” Microsoft’s top lawyer, Brad Smith, told reporters before the hearing. “Microsoft is willing to do more … Daily fines are not the solution.”
Microsoft says it has submitted 12,000 pages of documentation and will offer parts of its vital source code for work group servers as well as 500 hours of free technical support from Microsoft engineers.
But the Commission dismissed the Microsoft argument.
“Our independent trustee, who is advising the Commission and who was suggested to us by Microsoft, Professor Neil Barrett, has told us the document is, to quote, ‘totally useless’,” said Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd.
Microsoft, the Commission and third parties such as associations representing Microsoft’s rivals and technology pressure groups will take part in the hearing.
The information will then be assessed by the Commission, which will decide whether to fine Microsoft. This process is likely to take several weeks, the Commission said.
Todd also got in another zinger:
But EU spokesman Jonathan Todd said the company still has to comply with a 2-year-old antitrust order to share technical information with rivals.
“The best outcome for everybody would be that Microsoft were to finally do that,” he said.
One further note – Microsoft canceled a planned press briefing after today’s hearing:
Microsoft (MSFT) cancelled an 1115 GMT news conference on Thursday on a private EU hearing into whether it should be fined in an antitrust case after the hearing officer requested confidentiality.
“The Commission’s hearing officer made a clear request to all parties in the Microsoft oral hearing to respect the confidentiality of the process,” Microsoft said in a statement.
“Microsoft will respect this request and has therefore cancelled the press briefing.”
Go to your corners, come out swinging, and let’s have a clean fight! More seriously, does anyone expect Microsoft to come ahead on this hearing?
China Martens at InfoWorld:
A group of more than 35 U.S. and international IT vendors, organizations, academic institutions and industry bodies is due to announce the formation of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) Alliance Friday.
The new body, whose initial members include IBM, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems, will focus on further evangelizing the OpenDocument electronic file format.
Open Document Format for Office Applications, also known as OpenDocument, is being developed by the OASIS standards body as an XML (extensible markup language) file format. The format covers text, spreadsheets and other document types created by office productivity suites. Supporters of OpenDocument include offerings from open-source players and Sun’s StarOffice and IBM’s Workplace software suites.
The ODF Alliance has formed under the auspices of trade association the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). Other IT vendors in the alliance include Corel, EMC, Novell, and Red Hat.
There’s more in the article, including how the alliance would have aided Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn in his fight for Open Document. The ODF Alliance web site is now online and has more information.
Building on a long-standing relationship of integrating enterprise-class systems, software, services and shared best practices, EMC Corp. and Microsoft Corp. today announced a significant expansion of their alliance to further simplify the delivery of information life-cycle management (ILM) solutions for Microsoft® application environments. EMC and Microsoft will work together to develop and deliver a portfolio of integrated solutions that will help business customers cost-effectively manage information on the Microsoft server platform.
The expansion includes significant investments and commitments by both companies to joint solution delivery and sales engagement support to accelerate customer adoption and simplify deployment of Microsoft’s Exchange Server 2003 and SQL Server™ 2005 Enterprise Edition. In addition, a worldwide network of partner account managers will be established to drive predictable joint engagement and solution delivery.
EMC and Microsoft have committed to this new framework, which will facilitate the delivery of an ongoing portfolio of joint solutions. The alliance will initially focus on the following three initiatives:
• Simplified Exchange Upgrade and Deployment. Assessment, design and implementation services enhance the Exchange Server 2003 collaboration architecture and accelerate the implementation and upgrade process. An optimized information infrastructure with a centralized e-mail operation will enable customers to back up and rapidly restore Exchange Server information for disaster recovery, archiving and compliance.
• SQL Server 2005 Upgrade and Deployment. Database design and implementation services streamline customer upgrades to or new deployments of SQL Server 2005. This solution also results in an information infrastructure optimized for scalability, performance and availability.
• Accelerated Lotus Notes to Exchange Migration. Migration assessment, design and implementation services help Lotus Notes customers migrate to Exchange Server 2003 on an optimized EMC information infrastructure.
This is on the service side of EMC’s business. They still compete with Microsoft on products like VMware and continuous data protection, while having a strained relationship in low end network storage.
Update: And today EMC was one of the founders of the OpenDocument Format Alliance.
