Microsoft, JBoss link up

Bowing to market realities, Microsoft said Tuesday it will begin working with an ideological foe, open-source development and services company JBoss, on optimizing interoperability between JBoss' middleware and Microsoft's Windows Server software.

The deal doesn't mean Microsoft is softening its hard-line stance toward open-source development or becoming a Java enthusiast, Platform Technology Strategy Director Bill Hilf insisted. But with a significant number of JBoss customers deploying on Microsoft's platform, it's in both vendors' interests to ensure those deployments go smoothly, executives from the two companies said.

"Microsoft is not endorsing Java or J2EE [Java 2 Enterprise Edition] with this agreement. We will still compete heavily with .Net against Java," Hilf said. "But finding that shared customer base led us, like it should, to say, 'Customers are sure finding a lot of value in this. Can we do better?'"

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Bowing to market realities, Microsoft said Tuesday it will begin working with an ideological foe, open-source development and services company JBoss, on optimizing interoperability between JBoss' middleware and Microsoft's Windows Server software.

The deal doesn't mean Microsoft is softening its hard-line stance toward open-source development or becoming a Java enthusiast, Platform Technology Strategy Director Bill Hilf insisted. But with a significant number of JBoss customers deploying on Microsoft's platform, it's in both vendors' interests to ensure those deployments go smoothly, executives from the two companies said.

"Microsoft is not endorsing Java or J2EE [Java 2 Enterprise Edition] with this agreement. We will still compete heavily with .Net against Java," Hilf said. "But finding that shared customer base led us, like it should, to say, 'Customers are sure finding a lot of value in this. Can we do better?'"

This technical partnership is the first such alliance between Microsoft and Atlanta-based JBoss, which estimates that half its customers run its JBoss Enterprise Middleware System on Microsoft's Windows Server. (JBoss declined to disclose the overall size of its customer base.)

Precise goals for the newly formed alliance remain vague. Developers from the two companies will meet over the next year and, with input from joint customers, determine what new technologies and architectural guidance Microsoft and JBoss can offer to better align their software. Expected focus areas include integrated sign-on and identity management with Microsoft Active Directory, optimized SQL Server performance, and interoperability using the WS-* set of Web services standards.

JBoss announced its Microsoft alliance just hours before the start of rival BEA Systems' BEAWorld conference in Santa Clara, Calif. Earlier this month, Oracle unveiled its dramatic Siebel Systems takeover deal the same morning that rival Salesforce.com kicked off its user conference, while HP announced plans to buy Peregrine Systems  last week on the opening day of Oracle's OpenWorld show.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.