Microsoft at JavaOne 2009: “We come in peace”

If listening to Microsoft talk about openness and interoperability sounds weird, then it shouldn't really, not if we're being relaxed enough. If listening to Microsoft talk about openness and interoperability at a JavaOne keynote sounds weird, then I grant you – that's more of a push. But that's what we were treated to this morning here in San Francisco.

Microsoft and Sun have actually been working together towards some form of collaboration for five years this month. Added to that, Windows on Sun and Java on Windows has been a project running for about a year now. Still, Microsoft's Steven Martin and Dan'l Lewin couldn't help start their keynotes without saying out loud, “We come in peace.”

Microsoft used its session this morning at JavaOne to talk about its work with the Apache Stonehenge project, which is made up of companies and individual developers who share an interest in testing and establishing interoperability of web standards implementations.

Microsoft says it is now extremely focused on server side interoperability to connect heterogeneous systems and made its first contributions to Apache at the start of 2009. As the presenters this morning said, “Middleware is really hard to demo, everybody wants the plumbing fixed but nobody wants to meet the plumber.”

But given the potentially 'unsexy' nature of this keynote and the fact that it is effectively being presented on the last day of the show, I got up for it and the hall is almost as full as it was for the Larry Ellison and Scott McNealy keynote.

Microsoft says it recognises that projects like Stonehenge are crucial to the drive towards enhancing interoperability between different software implementations.

Microsoft's contribution to Apache was a sample application called StockTrader 2.0 designed to implement WS-* standards and was designed to demonstrate service-oriented architecture design principles. The company says that, “Interoperability work doesn’t stop at the end of the standardisation process. In fact, that is where it really starts.”

Perhaps this gutsy presentation is so well attended because of the slightly nervy presentation earlier in the week in the run up to Larry Ellison finally taking the stage. Developers, after all, came here to hear about code.

Sun's rather charming Aisling MacRunnels (who is senior VP of software marketing at Sun) joined the Microsoft guys on the stage and enthused at how “surreal” it was to be joined on stage by MS to talk about interoperability. I've met with Aisling and spoken to her at length so it would be totally unfair not to clarify her “surreal” comment and urge you not to take it out of context. You'd expect her to say that all this bodes well for the future because she is in marketing, but it actually does.

Microsoft says that it recognises that customers want to be able to deploy multiple implementations standards and have the ability to choose the best ones for their scenarios and requirements. This in itself will arguably encourage competition, innovation and ensure the production of better quality software in response to real world market forces.

If you are super-sceptical you may think that this is a whole new world for Microsoft. But I had sessions on the company's approach to interoperability (which it likes to say should be 'baked in' from the start) as far back as Tech.Ed 2005 – and I'm sure it goes back further than that. If you're not so sceptical you might like to check out Steven Martin's own blog which details his company's latest approach to this increasingly essential middleware consideration.