Microsoft to open interoperability lab in Asia-Pacific

Reaffirming its commitment to interoperate with open source software and other platforms, Microsoft recently announced its partnership with the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and the National Computer Center (NCC) for the establishment of the first Microsoft open source Interoperability laboratory in Asia-Pacific.

Scheduled to be operational in September, the interoperability lab is expected to promote the development of interoperable technologies that would allow Filipino developers to come up with more creative and innovative solutions that cater to a wider audience.

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Targeted at students, IT professionals, software developers and organizations interested in testing the performance of their open source applications on the Microsoft platform, the laboratory will be located inside the CICT-NCC building in the University of the Philippines and shall be open on weekdays with no entrance or usage fees.

“The opening of this interoperability lab is a testament of our serious desire to work with the developer community, whatever their choice of development method may be,” said Microsoft Philippines platform strategy manager Albert dela Cruz. “After all, at the end of the day, the heart of any system is still the developer.”

According to Ken Wye Saw, vice president for sales and marketing at Microsoft Asia Pacific, the company opted to open its first Interoperability laboratory in the Philippines because of the potential and opportunity that they saw in the country’s developer community. “There is great potential in the Philippines in terms of the skills of developers here,” Saw said.

D3 Systems, a local firm that develops mobile messaging applications around the Java platform, will be among the first to use the laboratory. “This will help not just individuals and companies but also the software industry in the Philippines,” said D3 Systems president Wilfredo dela Cruz.

For his part, CICT Commissioner and NCC director general Angelo Timoteo Diaz de Rivera is optimistic that the opening of the interoperability lab will serve as a showcase of solution possibilities and also encourage the development of applications that the government can use. “We have always had a pro-choice position. Our real advocacy is to build-up the skill base in the Philippines, and a way to push this is by propagating and advocating open standards,” he said.