Microsoft Office Web Applications = Multiplatform

Interoperability, or in this context Office for the web available to all users on all platforms. Just one of the examples of Software + Services. An article on ComputerWorl clarifies some details in the platform that Office Web Application will support. Just consider the potential of this …

November 13, 2008 (Computerworld) Microsoft Corp. clarified this week that the upcoming Office Web -- a lightweight version of its Office suite that runs as an online service -- will be available to users running Mac OS X and Linux, as well as from Apple's iPhone.

In a post to the Microsoft-run Channel 10 blog, someone identified as Sarah Perez spelled out system requirements for Office Web. According to Perez, the online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote will be accessible not only from Microsoft's own Internet Explorer (IE) and within Windows, but also from Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari browsers running on Mac OS X and Linux.

Firefox comes in versions for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows, while Safari has editions for both Mac OS X and Windows. Together, Firefox and Safari accounted for more than 26% of all browsers used during October, Web metrics firm Net Applications reported earlier this month. Microsoft's own IE, meanwhile, owned 71% of the browser usage share in October. ….

Source: ComputerWorldhttp://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9120143&intsrc=hm_list

Windows Live ID Becomes an OpenID Provider

Another big step in interoperability for Microsoft. Windows Live ID, one of the most widely used authentication mechanisms becomes and OpenID privider … This is just one of the many announcements made at PDC this week

Windows Live ID Commits to Support OpenID

Beginning today, Windows Live ID is publicly committing to support the OpenID digital identity framework with the announcement of the public availability of a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the Windows Live ID OpenID Provider.

You will soon be able to use your Windows Live ID account to sign in to any OpenID Web site!

The Windows Live ID OpenID Provider (OP) enables anyone with a Windows Live ID account to set up an OpenID alias and to use that alias for identification at an increasing number of OpenID 2.0 relying party sites-for example: Plaxo, Pibb, StackOverflow.com and Wikispaces.

What is OpenID?

The official answer from the OpenID Foundation (the guardians of the OpenID specs) is that "OpenID is a free and easy way to use a single digital identity across the Internet." (Source: http://openid.net/)

OpenID is an emerging, de facto standard Web protocol for user authentication. It helps eliminate the need for multiple user names across different Web sites, thereby simplifying a user's online experience. Stated another way, you can reuse your OpenID account at different Web sites without having to create a new user name and password at each site you use.

More information about OpenID is available at http://openid.net.

Windows Live ID OpenID Provider - October 2008 (CTP)

The initial release is a Community Technology Preview (CTP) Release in the Windows Live ID Integration (INT) environment. It is intended primarily for relying-party Web sites and developers of relying-party client libraries, to enable them to test the interoperability of their implementations against the Windows Live ID OP endpoint and flush out any bugs or incompatibilities.

Note that the Windows Live ID OP supports only the OpenID 2.0 protocol.

The Windows Live ID INT environment is separate from the main Production environment, and is for testing purposes only. If you have not already created a Windows Live ID user account for testing in INT, you can do so at http://login.live-int.com/.

After you have your Windows Live ID account in INT, go to https://login.live-int.com/beta/ManageOpenID.srf to set up your OpenID alias on that test account.

NOTE: INT accounts are for testing purposes only and are NOT intended to be permanent user accounts. They do not allow access to Windows Live services in Production.

Source: Microsoft Live Services blog

Remco Ploeg: Live ID Federation

Remco points to a very handy document on Windows Live ID federation,

... Deze ochtend vond ik een whitepaper over Live ID Federation. Een goede stap voorwaards, want zo kunnen we nu ook het onderwijsaanbod met live@EDU gaan vergroten met federatie.

The Windows Live™ ID service—the user-authentication system for Microsoft^® online resources such as MSN^® and the Windows Live services—can function as part of a federated identity system that works with authentication services from third-party partners. This capability gives users whose accounts are managed by such partners seamless access to Windows Live services. By federating identity with Windows Live ID, a partner provides its users with access to both the partner’s resources and Windows Live services.

This document describes how an organization can establish a federated user-identity relationship with the Windows Live ID service.  ...

 

Continue at source: Live ID Federation

Dana Gardner: SaaS adds up better with eXpresso’s hosted solution for Excel collaboration

SaaS solutions blending / integrating with Microsoft Office products. Dana Gardner posted about eXpresso, this company provides a SaaS based spreadsheet collaboration solution. They've aparently chosen to integrate with Microsoft Excel rather than to compete. Dana also mention the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server based Excel Services solution as something that is comparable for 'in house' use. This triggers me to look into Excel Services for cross firewall collaboration options. I will get back to that.

Ofcourse collaboratively working on spreadsheets in real time can be accomplished woth Microsoft Office LiveMeeting as well. Only the 'hosting user'  needs Excel running ...

... With over 150 million business users worldwide, Microsoft’s Excel has become a de facto standard for vast sets of business information and collaboration points.

Problems arise, however, when users and managers try to share spreadsheets and coordinate updated internal Excel information, sometimes from hundreds of far-flung users. Those seeking ease in distributing the contents of spreadsheets often bemoan the closed and brittle nature of “spreadmarts” — the burgeoning assemblages of spreadsheets, usually amid multiple versions of each.

eXpresso Corp., Menlo Park, Calif., has introduced what it says is a unique hosted solution that provides broad functionality while eliminating the cost and need for the IT department’s involvement for even minor Excel support, access and customization.
Using native Excel components, eXpresso’s product allows the spreadsheet owner to invite other users to view, edit, and update a spreadsheet, while retaining control over the permissions that each user has, right down to the cell level — something current online collaboration tools, such as Google spreadsheets, don’t currently offer.

Because it’s a SaaS, hosted system, users don’t need to download software or involve IT departments, something that would be required with such solutions as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. The hosting also allows collaboration outside the firewall, something that can present problems with in-house collaboration solutions. ...

 SaaS adds up better with eXpresso’s hosted solution for Excel collaboration
Dana Gardner
Mon, 17 Sep 2007

Integration infrastructure approaches adjust to new world of SaaS and shared services

Funny, just as I blogged about the requirement for SaaS solution to integrate / be interoperable, there's a blogpost by ZDNet's Dana Gardner on this subject (at least in the order I read the info :-) ).

Althought this article / podcast was sponsored by Cape Clear Software, it illustrates this topic of being one of the most important for SaaS ...

... Read a full transcript of the discussion. Sponsor: Cape Clear Software.

Change is afoot for the role and requirements of integration for modern software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers and enterprises adopting shared services models. Reuse is becoming an important issue, as are patterns of automation.

The notion of reuse of integration — with added emphasis on integration as a service — has prompted a different approach to integration infrastructure. The new demand is driven by ecologies of services, some from the Web “cloud,” as well as the need to efficiently scale the delivery of services and applications composed of many disparate component services.

Integrations require reusable patterns, high performance, as well as many different means of access from clients. As a result Cape Clear Software has this week unveiled a new major version of its enterprise service bus (ESB), Cape Clear 7.5, with an emphasis on:

• A new graphical editor, the SOA Assembly Editor, an Eclipse-based tool to graphically clip together elements of integrations.

• Multi-tenanting additions to the ESB that allow segmentation of integrations, data, and reporting, as well as segmenting use and reuse of integrations on reporting and management of integrations based on the identities of inbound customers, clients, or businesses.

• A Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) management system with tools to monitor transactions, and repair transactions when they fail, to allow for rebuilding previous business information and ensure transactional integrity in running and maintaining large enterprise-class BPEL deployments.

To help better understand the new landscape for integration models, I recently moderated a sponsored podcast discussion with Phil Wainewright, an independent consultant, director of Procullux Ventures, and fellow ZDNet SaaS blogger, as well as Annrai O’Toole, CEO of Cape Clear Software. ...

Source: Integration infrastructure approaches adjust to new world of SaaS and shared services
Athor: Dana Gardner
Data Published: Tue, 25 Sep 2007