Interoperability Nerdvana

Interoperability is one of the sacred goals of IT, and(who now owns SourceForge Enterprise),
even consumer computing. If operating systems,EnterpriseDB, Hyperic, JasperSoft, SourceForge.net,
utilities, and applications do not work together, userSpikeSource, and Unisys ... well, you have a bit of
productivity matches the low level I achieve onmuscle to get things done.
Friday around cocktail hour ... which is "none at all."What OSA initiated is an interoperability roadmap --
Open Source is ripping profitability out of the ITan attempt to specify some well-defined
software market in part do to growinginteroperability standards in the business software
interoperability. Unlike traditional technology vendors,space. That's right, interop in applications. The
Open Source benefits from creating the greatestobjective is to document standards and best
amount of interoperability possible. More commercialpractices for Open Source developers to use when
vendors keep margins high by locking in customers tobuilding their software. The OSA will help by
their suite of products. This is partially achieved byprototyping working code to demonstrate the
minimizing interoperability with competing andprinciples of the standards. The initial prototype will be
non-partner solutions, and thus raising switching coststhe Common Customer View. This standard joins
should a customer consider "dumping and jumping" toinformation held in different applications (CRM, ERP,
a different stack.etc.), business intelligence software, and for demo
Linux/GNU and their compatriots have been a modelsake, a legacy point-of-sale application.
for interoperability. They collectively seek to createThis presents new issues for software marketing
as much of the stuff as possible, assuring most ofprofessionals. If you are a traditional application
the components of the Linux stack work extremelyvendor, you will eventually encounter new
well together. Without traditional profit motives, thecompetitive threats. All other things being equal,
only barriers to interoperability were time andinteroperability between Open Source applications
complexity (the time it takes to code interoperations,would be a deal-making differentiator. Your products
and the complexity of supporting multiple points ofwill either have to interoperate with best-of-breed
interoperation).commercial applications, interoperate with Open
But this interoperability has been done on aSource applications using OSA standards, or both.
handshake when developers from different projectsIf you are a dual-source vendor, these standards will
found need and motivation. This has led to oddbecome part of your value proposition. This is a boon
partnerships, some necessary exclusivity, and a bit ofto dual-source vendors, creating an advantage over
weariness by IT in adopting Open Source solutionsbest-of-breed commercial applications while adhering
for fear that necessary interoperability that existsto the Open Source promise of lower cost and
today might not exist in the future. Open Source hasgreater flexibility. I can foresee a time when the old
now grown to a point where consumers desire a bitnetworking-centric Interop trade show could become
more structure.the application-centric Interop event, where all the
The Open Solutions Alliance (OSA) has started addingapplication software vendors demonstrate live how
structure. This happened pretty quickly for anthey work with all the other vendors in the building.
organization that didn't exist three months ago. ButInterop launched standards-based networking, and
when you have founding members like CollabNetOSA may launch standards-based applications.