There is a lot of excitement in the benefits that cloud computing promises to bring to society.
However, what’s equally important is the notion of cloud interoperability, or the ability of one cloud to work with other platforms and applications and not just with other clouds.
This is paramount if we want to realize the full potential of cloud computing and all the benefits that it can bring to us.
At Microsoft, our approach to cloud interoperability is based on openness – i.e. documenting the proprietary protocols of our leading products, making sure open source technologies work with our technologies, and most importantly, support popular standards in our products and services. We’ve said in the past that we take a pragmatic approach to interoperability. The same holds true for our approach to interoperability in the cloud.
Cloud interoperability is hard work, but we strive to provide the world’s best platforms, not only for Microsoft’s technologies, but for everyone else’s too.
To help you understand some of the cloud interoperability scenarios that Microsoft helps enable, here is a nice infographic to illustrate a day in the life of Isabela Interop, a busy environmental studies researcher who like many of us, has busy days juggling work and family. Let’s look how interoperable technology is connecting Isabela to her work, family and community.
How many different technologies do you use and go through during an average day?
And isn’t it pretty amazing that most of these technologies just work together?
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2 Responses to “A Day in the Life in Cloud Interoperability”
Arda
Yea, we’ll see. I think I must have spent about six hours over the past two weeks alone just overcoming MSIE diplsay issues that are a direct result of Microsoft’s middle-finger attitude to standards. Should I send an invoice for that time to Bill G? How much time and money is wasted by web developers putting in IE hacks?
Jonathan Wong
Sorry to hear that you are having issues with your web development. Generally speaking, altering code based on a specific browser limits the adaptability of web pages. Instead of coding (hacking) for specific browsers and browser versions, the best practice is to use feature and behavioral detection instead when writing cross-browser code.
If you are not sure what to do, here is a good article from the IE blog to start you off:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2010/04/14/same-markup-writing-cross-browser-code.aspx