Microsoft Malta announces Interoperability Principles
Microsoft Malta today announced the most recent evolution in the approach of interoperability. The interoperability principles were explained during a series of presentations by Microsoft officials which were held at The Business Centre, Malta Hilton, Portomaso. The conference aimed at creating additional choices for customers and fostering new opportunities for business growth in the IT industry in Malta.
During his welcome address, Nick Tonna, Enterprise Account Manager, said that interoperability across applications and services has become a key requirement in business. “All our enterprise business products are interoperable by design and follow industry standards and specifications to make it easy for customers to use them in conjunction with other technologies. These products include Windows Vista (including the .NET Framework) Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office 2007, Exchange Server 2007 and Officer SharePoint Server 2007, as well as future versions of these products.”
The conference was officially opened by the Hon. Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications, Dr Austin Gatt. “The policy and strategy of the Malta Government as well as the present technological infrastructure put Malta at an advantage when compared with other EU countries. This is all due to our networks, both at Central and Local Government level, which allow interoperability among all Government departments and e-government services,” said Minister Gatt.
In this regard, he said, Malta has one of the most flexible systems in the EU, since Government has long recognized the important role played by ICT in the provision of government services. This strongly contrasts with other situations in some European countries where sometimes not even inter-ministerial communication can operate at this level.
Wilfried Grommen, Microsoft CEE General Manager and Regional Technology Officer, was the keynote speaker. He presented the concept of interoperability frameworks and how these align with Microsoft’s interoperability principles. He also discussed some of the latest innovations in the field of interoperability developed by Microsoft. As part of event, the participants took part in a round table discussion on the European Interoperability framework which was facilitated by Mr Grommen.
Alan Attard, Microsoft Malta Solution Specialist explained the concepts of portal-to-portal interoperability, while Joseph Seychell, Microsoft Consulting Services, gave a presentation on identity and access optimization.
Godwin Caruana, Chief Enterprise Architect, MITA gave an overview of the European Interoperability framework and how the Maltese government was implementing this.
