When I think about IT (and business for that matter), the interactions that result from useful connections are the primary generators of value. To put it another way, if connections can't be made, value cannot be transferred from one person to another, or from one system or application to another and remains trapped and useless. Hiring the most intelligent person on the planet does you no good if he/she cannot communicate with the rest of your team. Likewise the most advanced piece of technology will only help if it can be leveraged by the rest of your infrastructure, including your existing data and systems. Since heterogeneity is reality, interoperability must exist to enable these connections.

Interoperability is connecting people, data and diverse systems. Microsoft's approach to interoperability is to achieve it "by design" – meaning that we strive for greater product connectivity 'out of the box'. Design includes not only product engineering, but also includes community collaboration (customers, partners, and competitors), providing access to our technologies through licensing, the OSP, and translation tools, and by implementing thousands of standards in our products, and engaging in hundreds of standards-setting activities.

Microsoft participates actively in each of the above methods for achieving interoperability by design. Specific examples of each can be found on the Microsoft interoperability website at http://www.microsoft.com/inteorp. I personally have an ongoing commitment to ensure that we are providing useful examples and references to resources that help address real interoperability issues. If there are specific topic areas missing, please let me know!