Microsoft is making a set of broad-reaching changes to its technology and business practices that will increase the openness of its products and drive greater interoperability, opportunity and choice across the information technology community of developers, partners, customers and competitors.

Specifically, Microsoft is implementing four new interoperability principles and corresponding actions across its high-volume enterprise products – Windows Vista (including the .NET Framework), Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office 2007, Exchange Server 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 (as well as future versions) – as follows:

• Ensuring open connections

• Promoting data portability

• Enhancing support for industry standards

• Fostering more open engagement with the industry, including the open source community, around interoperability and standards issues

For more information on the announcement, see Microsoft Makes Strategic Changes in Technology and Business Practices to Expand Interoperability.