Microsoft Unveils Vision and Road Map to Simplify SOA, Bridge Software Plus Services, and Take Composite Applications Mainstream
REDMOND, Washington, October 30 /PRNewswire/ --
- Company announces multiyear investment in 'Oslo,' launches new SOA
resources for IT professionals.
Attendees gathered at the fifth annual Microsoft SOA & Business Process
Conference today, where the company shared its vision and road map to
simplify the effort required to design, build, deploy and manage composite
applications within and across organisations. Microsoft Corp announced
"Oslo," the code name for the set of technical investments that help
customers realise this vision.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO)
This multiyear, multiproduct effort utilises the company's top
engineering talent to build on the model-driven and service-enabled
principles of Microsoft Dynamic IT
(http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/jun07/06-04TechED07PR.mspx)
and extend the benefits of service-oriented architecture (SOA) beyond the
firewall. The "Oslo" technology innovations further Microsoft
software-plus-services efforts by providing extensions to the application
platform to help developers bridge between on-premise and off-premise
projects. As part of a technical road map, Microsoft made available new tools
and guidance to help organisations take advantage of "real-world SOA" today,
including new SOA resources from Microsoft and a host of industry partners.
"Many customers are challenged to realise the promise of SOA given
today's complexities," said Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft Business
Division. "The combination of our current software-plus-services approach and
the new wave of 'Oslo' technologies will enable IT to deliver high-impact
business solutions."
Today, applications cannot easily span the boundaries between
technologies, between business and IT, and between an organisation, its
suppliers and its customers. Microsoft's continued investments in SOA and
business-process management (BPM) technologies will help customers better
connect across these boundaries using a service-oriented and model-driven
approach. As part of "Oslo," Microsoft will work to deliver a unified
platform integrating services and modelling, moving from a world where models
describe the application to a world where models are the application.
"It's time to help developers and IT professionals extend the
capabilities of SOA to address the new 'blended' world of software plus
services and cross-boundary collaboration," said Robert Wahbe, corporate vice
president of the Connected Systems Division at Microsoft. "'Oslo' will enable
a new class of applications that are connected and streamlined - from design
through deployment - reducing complexity, aligning the enterprise and
Internet, and simplifying interoperability and management."
At the conference today, Microsoft also demonstrated an upcoming
community technology preview of Microsoft BizTalk Services (
http://labs.biztalk.net/default.aspx), featuring additional support for
interoperability, Web 2.0 services, identity standards and work flow in the
cloud.
Building on the technology available today, the "Oslo" advancements will
be delivered through Microsoft server and tools products in five key areas:
-- Server. Microsoft BizTalk Server "6" will continue to provide a core
foundation for distributed and highly scalable SOA and BPM solutions,
and deliver the capability to develop, manage and deploy composite
applications.
-- Services. BizTalk Services "1" will offer a commercially supported
release of web-based services enabling hosted composite applications
that cross organisational boundaries. This release will include
advanced messaging, identity and work flow capabilities.
-- Framework. The Microsoft .NET Framework "4" release will further
enable model-driven development with Windows Communication Foundation
(WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF).
-- Tools. New technology planned for Visual Studio "10" will make
significant strides in end-to-end application life-cycle management
through new tools for model-driven design of distributed applications.
-- Repository. There will also be investments in aligning the metadata
repositories across the Server and Tools product sets. Microsoft
System Center "5," Visual Studio "10" and BizTalk Server "6" will
utilise a repository technology for managing, versioning and deploying
models.
Customers are realising the benefits of Microsoft's real-world approach
to SOA and vision by employing today's technology, including BizTalk Server
and BizTalk Services, along with the upcoming .NET Framework and Visual
Studio. On 27 Feb 2008, Microsoft will continue the wave of innovation by
also launching Windows Server 2008, .NET Framework 3.5, and Microsoft SQL
Server 2008.
Reinforcing their commitment to SOA, Microsoft, Accenture and Avanade
recently announced the Accenture and Avanade Solutions Showcase, located on
Microsoft's corporate campus. This Solutions Showcase highlights the power of
SOA while offering customers customised solutions in areas such as the
next-generation workplace, infrastructure optimisation and business
intelligence. The first solution to be developed in conjunction with the new
Solutions Showcase, a human resources (HR) solution that helps organisations
quickly and efficiently bring on board new employees, was demonstrated during
Robert Wahbe's keynote address at the Microsoft SOA & BPM Conference.
"The Solutions Showcase illustrates the benefits of bringing together the
technology skills and industry expertise of Accenture, Avanade and Microsoft
in a single location," said Paul Daugherty, chief architect for Accenture.
"Our customers are always looking to extract more value from their
application development investments and can benefit from this joint
innovation as they develop mission critical-solutions on the Microsoft
platform."
Customers and partners can visit the new Microsoft SOA and Business
Process Solution Center at http://www.microsoft.com/soa for additional
information and resources, including patterns and practices based on the most
successful customer implementations.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise
their full potential.
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