Even as Microsoft Corp. rolled out its Windows Server 2003 product family last week, some of its largest enterprise customers were calling for greater interoperability with the Unix and Linux systems already in place in their IT infrastructures.

Jeff O'Dell (pictured), vice president of architecture for health benefits provider Cigna Corp., in Bloomington, Conn., which runs Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 and is testing Windows Server 2003, has told Microsoft he intends to continue to operate in a multiplatform environment. So far, the company is listening.

"They are making it much more possible for us to use Windows in greater ways than we would have been able to in the past," O'Dell said. "I am encouraged by the progress that they have made in working towards greater interoperability."

Massimo Villinger, chief technology officer for Lockheed Martin Enterprise Information Systems, in Orlando, Fla., agrees. "We have seen some reasonable progression of platforms like HP-UX. When we say interoperability we mean a fully integrated identity management so that the other platforms are consuming Active Directory management," Villinger said. "Interoperability is an interesting issue for us, and we're working towards that so that we achieve the nirvana of single sign-on sometime."

Full Article:
eWeek