SAP and Microsoft have released details of how the two
software companies will integrate their respective NetWeaver and
.net strategic platforms.
The co-operation agreement is aimed at reducing friction for
customers who have to work with both .net and NetWeaver but do not
want to work with bridges, said SAP board member Shai Agassi at the
Sapphire international customer conference in New Orleans.
Customers from both companies have demanded tighter integration,
according to Agassi.
Almost two-thirds of all SAP installations are deployed on
Microsoft's Windows operating systems, with more than 40,000 SAP
installations already running on these systems - more than all
other platforms combined.
Last year, SAP unveiled NetWeaver as its latest integration and
application server middleware. The web services-based platform aims
at easing users' integration problems by linking disparate
applications and data sources.
"Both [SAP and Microsoft] are betting heavily on web services,
and now they've been able to find common ground," said Eric Rudder,
vice-president of servers and tools at Microsoft.
SAP will begin a beta version of SAP Enterprise Portal SDK
(software design kit) for .net within the next four months. The aim
is to enable developers who use the ASP.net programming model to
customise and extend SAP applications, by delivering richer and
more robust SAP Enterprise Portal development capabilities on the
Windows platform using Microsoft Visual Studio.net as a development
tool.
SAP will offer a version of SAP.net Connector Version 2.0 in
August, building on the work the two companies have already done to
help customers more easily integrate SAP applications with
.net-based applications.
Features include enhanced language support for Visual Basic.net,
better integration with Visual Studio.net and enhancement to
support development of more secure applications and controls.
SAP will support Visual Studio.net by joining the Visual Studio
Industry Partner programme, thereby allowing software developers
who use Visual Studio.net to program against SAP applications from
the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment.
The next version of SAP NetWeaver will provide native support
for advanced web services protocols, enabling reliable
interoperability with core .net technologies including Microsoft
BizTalk Server.
SAP will deliver sample applications for developers to implement
smart clients to access SAP system capabilities from Microsoft
Office System applications and Visual Studio 2005.
By early 2005, Microsoft aims to provide repository managers
that integrate between SAP NetWeaver Knowledge Management, Windows
SharePoint Services and Microsoft Exchange Server.
In addition, Microsoft and SAP have agreed to staff a
Collaboration Technology Support Centre, where SAP is located. The
centre will help the companies identify and present integration
scenarios and support sales and staffs.
The two companies will also collaborate on marketing, including
the joint publication of white papers, and have agreed to
cross-license patents to provide a better environment for joint
technical collaboration and systems development.
John Blau writes for IDG News Service