GOVERNMENT
Microsoft sets up first interoperability lab in Bangalore
In continuation of its ongoing efforts to address the interoperability needs of customers, Microsoft has announced two new initiatives at the Microsoft Interoperability Conclave held in Bangalore, India. The two initiatives include – Microsoft's first Interoperability Lab in India, designed to help customers envision and build solutions which are interoperable; Open Source Technology Program designed to further open source research and development of open source applications on the Windows platform in collaboration with leading engineering institutes in the country. 
Focused at discussing issues, challenges and solutions to foster interoperability, the Conclave drew participation from leading academicians, bureaucrats and industry professionals including Dr D B Phatak, Professor, IIT Bombay, Mr R Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary (E-Governance), Department of Information Technology, Govt of India, Mr Nandan Nilekani, Co-Chairman, Infosys and Craig Mundie, Chief Research & Strategy Officer, Microsoft . To ensure enhanced customer productivity in the increasingly heterogeneous technology environment. Microsoft has been leading the interoperability initiative and ensuring different technologies are able to talk to each other. Microsoft's four pronged strategy in this direction encompasses accomplishing interoperability through the explicit design of interoperable products, through working with partners, customers, and competitors, licensing IP and working with industry to create standards. The company has been consistently engaging with the ecosystem to promote interoperability and has rolled out several initiatives globally and in India in partnership with academia as well as customers and partners. Co-located at the Microsoft Technical Centre in Bangalore, the Interoperability lab will enable customers envision and test interoperable solutions across infrastructure, application and management layers. The facility will encompass all benefits of the technical centre which include access to world class infrastructure, experts and Open Source Lab in Redmond. Under the Open Source Technology Program Microsoft also announced signing of MoUs with IIT-Kanpur, IIT Guwahati, IIIT Hyderabad and IIIT Bangalore. "Interoperability is as critical a challenge as security and reliability to the health of an organization's IT environment. With open dialogue and on ground work with the industry and academia we hope to collectively address this emerging and important issue", said Mr. Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India. 'Initiatives like the Interoperability lab and the Open Source Technology program are significant milestones in our efforts to collaborate with the eco system to promote a community development approach and create innovative products that are inherently interoperable', he added. The Interoperability Lab will showcase, envision and build interoperability solutions for specific heterogeneous technology scenarios like cross platform rich web application and line of business application integration, virtualization and management of heterogeneous platforms. The lab will be equipped with access to state-of-art computing and office infrastructure and Microsoft and Open Source Software to develop and test Interoperable solutions. The Open Source Technology Program encourages student projects across diverse research areas such as Interoperability between Windows and Linux platforms, Mobile and embedded devices applications, Web and database applications on Windows, High performance computing applications etc. Further it will provide educational research grants to faculty and scholarships to students. Microsoft will encourage students to follow an open source community engagement model through Codeplex and port25.technet.com. As part of the program, students will also get guidance from an Expert Advisory Council comprising of eminent members of the academic community. Some ongoing interoperability initiatives in India in collaboration with members of the eco system include: Academia: -- Scholar versus Scholar Program: A comprehensive Student Awards and Faculty Research grant program designed to promote HPC research and development of open source applications on Windows Compute Cluster Server. Over 250 institutions have participated in this program and the academics and students from the two winning institutes Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gandhinagar and BITS –Pilani – were felicitated at the Conclave today. Customers and Partners: -- 'Interoperability between Windows and Linux' – Building Bridges between the Present and the Future" a 5 city roundtable series hosted by Frost & Sullivan in India. The discussion focused on understanding the interoperability issues which customers face in India and the incentives they look forward to from vendors to facilitate interoperability -- The Company is also working with several partners in India to collaborate and develop solutions based on OXML - these include Datacraft India Ltd; Microland Ltd, HCL Infosystems Limited; Prodapt solutions, PriceWaterhouse Coopers Pvt. Ltd. -- India is also represented in the Interoperability Executive Customer Council and Dr P. Madhav of IEG Hyderabad. is a member of the council from India The Conclave also saw a Panel Discussion on the subject of "Interoperability: Challenges and Opportunities" which drew participation from eminent members of the industry and academia such as Dr P. Madhav of IEG Hyderabad, Dr C R Muthukrishnan (Ex-Director, IITM and Consultant, TCS), Dr M Rammohan Rao (Dean, ISB, Hyderabad), Mr M N Vidyashankar (IT Secretary, Karnataka), Ms Revathi (MD, Novell) and Dr Madan Mohan (Director, Frost & Sullivan)
Focused at discussing issues, challenges and solutions to foster interoperability, the Conclave drew participation from leading academicians, bureaucrats and industry professionals including Dr D B Phatak, Professor, IIT Bombay, Mr R Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary (E-Governance), Department of Information Technology, Govt of India, Mr Nandan Nilekani, Co-Chairman, Infosys and Craig Mundie, Chief Research & Strategy Officer, Microsoft . To ensure enhanced customer productivity in the increasingly heterogeneous technology environment. Microsoft has been leading the interoperability initiative and ensuring different technologies are able to talk to each other. Microsoft's four pronged strategy in this direction encompasses accomplishing interoperability through the explicit design of interoperable products, through working with partners, customers, and competitors, licensing IP and working with industry to create standards. The company has been consistently engaging with the ecosystem to promote interoperability and has rolled out several initiatives globally and in India in partnership with academia as well as customers and partners. Co-located at the Microsoft Technical Centre in Bangalore, the Interoperability lab will enable customers envision and test interoperable solutions across infrastructure, application and management layers. The facility will encompass all benefits of the technical centre which include access to world class infrastructure, experts and Open Source Lab in Redmond. Under the Open Source Technology Program Microsoft also announced signing of MoUs with IIT-Kanpur, IIT Guwahati, IIIT Hyderabad and IIIT Bangalore. "Interoperability is as critical a challenge as security and reliability to the health of an organization's IT environment. With open dialogue and on ground work with the industry and academia we hope to collectively address this emerging and important issue", said Mr. Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India. 'Initiatives like the Interoperability lab and the Open Source Technology program are significant milestones in our efforts to collaborate with the eco system to promote a community development approach and create innovative products that are inherently interoperable', he added. The Interoperability Lab will showcase, envision and build interoperability solutions for specific heterogeneous technology scenarios like cross platform rich web application and line of business application integration, virtualization and management of heterogeneous platforms. The lab will be equipped with access to state-of-art computing and office infrastructure and Microsoft and Open Source Software to develop and test Interoperable solutions. The Open Source Technology Program encourages student projects across diverse research areas such as Interoperability between Windows and Linux platforms, Mobile and embedded devices applications, Web and database applications on Windows, High performance computing applications etc. Further it will provide educational research grants to faculty and scholarships to students. Microsoft will encourage students to follow an open source community engagement model through Codeplex and port25.technet.com. As part of the program, students will also get guidance from an Expert Advisory Council comprising of eminent members of the academic community. Some ongoing interoperability initiatives in India in collaboration with members of the eco system include: Academia: -- Scholar versus Scholar Program: A comprehensive Student Awards and Faculty Research grant program designed to promote HPC research and development of open source applications on Windows Compute Cluster Server. Over 250 institutions have participated in this program and the academics and students from the two winning institutes Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gandhinagar and BITS –Pilani – were felicitated at the Conclave today. Customers and Partners: -- 'Interoperability between Windows and Linux' – Building Bridges between the Present and the Future" a 5 city roundtable series hosted by Frost & Sullivan in India. The discussion focused on understanding the interoperability issues which customers face in India and the incentives they look forward to from vendors to facilitate interoperability -- The Company is also working with several partners in India to collaborate and develop solutions based on OXML - these include Datacraft India Ltd; Microland Ltd, HCL Infosystems Limited; Prodapt solutions, PriceWaterhouse Coopers Pvt. Ltd. -- India is also represented in the Interoperability Executive Customer Council and Dr P. Madhav of IEG Hyderabad. is a member of the council from India The Conclave also saw a Panel Discussion on the subject of "Interoperability: Challenges and Opportunities" which drew participation from eminent members of the industry and academia such as Dr P. Madhav of IEG Hyderabad, Dr C R Muthukrishnan (Ex-Director, IITM and Consultant, TCS), Dr M Rammohan Rao (Dean, ISB, Hyderabad), Mr M N Vidyashankar (IT Secretary, Karnataka), Ms Revathi (MD, Novell) and Dr Madan Mohan (Director, Frost & Sullivan)