Microsoft release details of Oslo composite applications project
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Microsoft has started what it calls a “multi-year, multi-product effort” to simplify the effort required to design, build, deploy and manage composite applications within and across organisations – enabling a new class of applications that can be easily connected and streamlined.
Code named Oslo, it was launched at the fifth annual Microsoft SOA and Business Process Conference and will, says the company, involve its top engineering talent building on the model-driven and service-enabled principles of Microsoft Dynamic IT.
The objective is to extend the benefits of SOA (service-orientated architecture) beyond the firewall, with Microsoft hoping to further its ‘software-plus-services’ efforts by providing extensions to its application platform to help developers bridge between so-called on-premise and off-premise projects.
As part of a technical road map, Microsoft has now made new tools and guidance available to help companies take advantage of what it calls “real-world SOA” today – including new SOA resources from Microsoft and industry partners.
“Many customers are challenged to realise the promise of SOA, given today’s complexities,” says Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft Business Division. “The combination of our current software-plus-services approach and the new wave of Oslo technologies will enable IT to deliver high-impact business solutions.”
He makes the point that at the moment, applications cannot easily span the boundaries between technologies – even between business and IT – and certainly between organisations and their suppliers and customers. The expectation is that Microsoft’s investments in SOA and BPM (business-process management) software will help customers change that, particularly using a SOA and model-driven approach.
So as part of Oslo, Microsoft says it will work to deliver a unified platform integrating services and modelling, and “moving from a world where models describe the application to a world where models are the application”.
“It’s time to help developers and IT professionals extend the capabilities of SOA to address the new blended world of software plus services and cross-boundary collaboration,” explains Robert Wahbe, corporate vice president of the Connected Systems Division at Microsoft. “Oslo will enable a new class of applications that are connected and streamlined – from design through deployment – reducing complexity, aligning the enterprise and Internet, and simplifying interoperability and management.”
Building on the technology available today, Oslo is to be delivered through Microsoft server and tools – in particular harnessing Microsoft BizTalk Server 6, The Microsoft .NET Framework 4 release and new technology planned for Visual Studio 10.
