Demand for Interop Fuels J2EE, Microsoft Unity

This article aims to give developers and architects an armchair tour
of the scope and depth of how J2EE leading vendors are working with
Microsoft to push the availability of next-gen interop technologies
and Best Practices. Last month's JavaOne put J2EE/.NET interop in the
spotlight like never before. Sun and Microsoft technical experts stood
together on a Moscone stage in San Francisco, and debuted co-developed
interop technologies for helping J2EE developers secure traffic between
J2EE and .NET platforms. If JavaOne is any indication, the fences
between J2EE and .NET are definitely coming down. Simon Guest, an interop
specialist and senior program manager on Microsoft's Architecture Strategy
Team, presented at JavaOne. Following Microsoft's Andrew Layman
co-keynote with Sun's Mark Hapner, Guest commented, "we got really good
applause from the audience. A lot of developers came by our booth to tell
us they were glad we were there, which was good to hear" -- the implication
being that Java users and developers are also telling Java vendors it's
OK to work closely with Microsoft on interop. J2EE/.NET interop is
'extremely important' to IBM customers, according to Jeff Jones, IBM's
director of strategy for information management software (IMS): "Customers
tell us that .NET has come more front and center for them, so our focus on
.NET interop has intensified. IBM and Microsoft] now have a jointly staffed
lab in Kirkland, Washington. At that lab, IBM has woven support into DB2
for .NET devs, and made great progress with our ability to interop with
Windows Server 2003 and the upcoming 2005 version... BEA is also
intensifying its interop programs with Microsoft, but their approach is
a bit different than Big Blue's. BEA execs say J2EE/.NET interop will be
key to providing better unified support for .NET and J2EE programming
models, making it easier for developers and architects to program in a
mixed environment. Earlier this spring, BEA introduced its AquaLogic
Service Bus, an abstraction layer designed to sit above Java/J2EE and
.NET environments... For Sun Microsystems there are very compelling
reasons to partner with Microsoft, and work to improve J2EE/.NET interop
tools and approaches. Customers of both companies are demanding
interoperability at all levels, but perhaps most importantly interop must
come with a unified security model. As Sun and Microsoft interop experts
joined together on the JavaONE stage, McNealy demonstrated a new interop
security standard, dubbed Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism
(MTOM). MTOM enables developers to send binary attachments between Java
and .NET using Web Services, while retaining the protections offered by
WS-* security and reliability specs...