Sun and Microsoft expand investment in interoperability with new center

"The new Sun/Microsoft Interoperability Center will help provide our joint customers in the region with a testbed for running key Microsoft applications on Sun's x64 servers and help ensure more seamless integration between the technologies," said Chris Cornelius, Managing Director, Sun Microsystems, MENA.

"Additionally, with the new Infrastructure Solution for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Sun's expertise in x64 servers, storage and 64-bit database architectures will enable customers to significantly reduce email TCO and ease the transition to the new 64-bit product."

Objectives of the Sun/Microsoft Interoperability Center will include optimization of Microsoft applications on Sun x64 systems and storage, and promotion of full interoperability in application areas such as virtualization, Java(TM) technology, systems management, and identity.

Additionally, the Center will collaborate with authorized Sun(SM) Solution Centers to support customers in running their own proofs-of-concept testing.

Customers can minimize their risk and shorten time to deployment by simulating their own environment, with access to top architects from both Sun and Microsoft.

Bob Kelly, corporate vice president of infrastructure server marketing at Microsoft said:

"Our customers and partners want to maximize their business efficiency and we are helping them do that, by opening the new Sun/Microsoft Interoperability Center. The center will provide a setting for hands-on testing and tuning of Sun/Microsoft solutions and help our joint customers achieve unprecedented performance results for their standardized and home-grown solutions. It is consistent with our recently announced interoperability principles, which guide steps that we are taking, on our own and in collaboration with others, to enhance interoperability in the marketplace for the benefit of customers".

The Interoperability Center expands Sun's three-year presence on the Microsoft main campus, focused on testing customer scenarios on Sun systems in the Microsoft Enterprise Engineering Center.

Microsoft and Sun have collaborated in a number of interoperability areas including: Web services, identity management, thin clients, systems management and Windows Server engineering.

The two companies have also created a basis for tighter interoperability between Java Platform Enterprise Edition (Java EE), the .NET Framework 3.0 and Windows Communication Foundation in Sun's Web services interoperability technologies (Project Tango).

Sun became a Windows Server OEM in September 2007 and is also a founding member of the Microsoft Interoperability Vendor Alliance and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.