EMC, IBM and Microsoft joint creation of CMIS specification
ConvergenceAsia staff
11/09/2008

EMC, IBM and Microsoft have announced a jointly developed specification which uses Web Services and Web 2.0 interfaces to enable applications to interoperate with multiple Enterprise Content Management (ECM) repositories by different vendors.

The companies intend to submit the Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) specification to OASIS (Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) for advancement through its rigorous standards development process.

The ultimate goal of CMIS is to dramatically reduce the IT burden around multi-vendor, multi-repository content management environments. The specification will also benefit independent software vendors (ISVs) by enabling them to create specialised applications that are capable of running over a variety of content management systems.

Working together since late 2006, the three companies were joined in the creation of the CMIS draft specification by other leading software providers including: Alfresco Software, Open Text, Oracle and SAP. A final gathering of all seven companies was recently held to validate interoperability of the specification before submission to OASIS.

“Many companies today are struggling with how to unlock the full value of their data when they have multiple content management solutions dispersed throughout their organisation. Currently, 'marrying' these into one integrated system - or migrating content between systems - costs the IT department a lot in time and money," said Melissa Webster, program vice president, Content & Digital Media Technologies at IDC.

"Given the need for a common standard that will enable customers to access disparate repositories, today's announcement certainly seems like a very positive step in the right direction," she added.

For more information, and to download a preview copy of the CMIS technical specification draft, please see the website of any of the contributing companies: EMC (www.emc.com/about/news/press/2008/091008-smr-content-management-interoperability-services.htm); IBM (www.ibm.com/software/data/content-management/cm-interoperablity-services.html); and Microsoft http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=127855.

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