Interoperability (pronounced IHN-tuhr-AHP-uhr-uh-BIHL-ih-tee) is the
ability of a system or a product to work with other systems or products without special effort on
the part of the customer. Interoperability becomes a quality of increasing importance for
information technology products as the concept that "The network is the computer" becomes a
reality. For this reason, the term is widely used in product marketing descriptions.
Products achieve interoperability with other products using either or both of two
approaches:
- By adhering to published interface
standards
- By making use of a "broker" of services that can convert one product's interface into another
product's interface "on the fly"
A good example of the first approach is the set of standards that have been developed for the
World Wide Web. These standards include TCP/IP,
Hypertext Transfer Protocol, and HTML. The second
kind of interoperability approach is exemplified by the Common Object Request Broker Architecture
(CORBA)
and its Object Request Broker (ORB).
Compatibility is a related term. A product is compatible with a standard but
interoperable with other products that meet the same standard (or achieve interoperability through
a broker).
This was last updated in April 2006
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