VHD under OSP
Jason Matusow has a piece of news to share regarding Microsoft's interop efforts:
"As of today, we are extending our commitment to interoperability by announcing that our Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) Image Format is becoming an open specification under the open specification promise (OSP). VHD is the file format for storing virtual machines. Think of it like this: VHD is to virtualization as .DOC is to office productivity. There are >60 industry licensees of the VHD open format today, but we have heard feedback from the community to have us broaden the availability of the technology. Our hope is to see broad adoption of the VHD technology, and to promote interoperability for our customers. By putting the VHD under the OSP, it is available for any developer to utilize no matter what development or business model they choose to use."
Beta News has more on the story...and more on OSP here.
Link to the press release is here and the VHD spec.
While on the topic of Microsoft's interop efforts, check out Craig Kitterman's post. Craig is a Technical Evangelist focused exclusively on interop:
"...I am going to be reaching out directly to developers, architects and IT pros who deal with interoperability issues on a daily basis. I think of you as the 'troops on the ground' – the folks who are tasked with actually dealing with these issues, and are usually the first people to raise these issues within your organization. This is a very different conversation than one we can have with CIOs and CTOs, and in my opinion is just as critical to our long term vision of interoperability. Over the next several months, I will be constructing a community consisting of several Microsoft and non-Microsoft folks who will be blogging regularly on interoperability subjects – including specific technical solutions. "
If you've got some feedback for Microsoft on interop, Craig's a pretty good starting point for you...