Interoperability Is More Than Just Talking With Each Other

Microsoft and Sun recently announced their Open Source Project Stonehenge at the JavaOne conference. Stonehenge is a reference implementation that shows how to bridge the two major development platforms Java and .NET using Web Services. This initiative definitely puts the spotlight on heterogeneity and the challenges that come with it.

Interoperability on the platform level is just the starting point of bridging the two worlds. It leads to further challenges down the road and several questions that come with it:

Who needs interoperability?
How does it affect team productivity?
Is it all about application stacks?
How effective can we diagnose problems?
How to calculate TCO 1 + 1 = 2 or 3?

Who needs interoperability?
There are different use cases where companies need to think about interoperability

Integrating different systems implemented on different platforms, e.g.: ERP with CRM
Integrating 3rd party solutions that only run on a specific platform, e.g.: Enterprise Search Engines
Integrate components inherited from acquisitions.

The driving factor of interoperability in all these cases is gained productivity. Instead of re-implementing an existing system in order to bring it on to the platform of choice it is more productive to integrate with the other platform.

Individual platforms also have their individual strengths in different areas. Microsoft technologies for instance provide great flexibility and good tools to implement end-user applications whereas the Java platform has proven itself very strong in backend enterprise systems. Leveraging the best of both sides requires the integration of these two worlds.

Microsoft and Sun took the first step by providing a reference implementation that shows how to technically integrate .NET and Java by using Web Services. This is a first important step - but there is more than the technical integration that we need in order to successfully make interoperability happen.

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