In April, IBM also reversed its stance , saying the need for the software industry to find a way for businesses to link their different computing systems outweighed competitive issues. The original version of SOAP too closely favored Microsoft technologies over industry standards, said Anne Thomas Manes, Sun's director of business strategy. But thanks to the influence of IBM, the new version of SOAP includes less Microsoft-specific technology and more support for Web standards, she said. For instance, the original version of SOAP used a proprietary Microsoft technology linked to the company's BizTalk Server software. Now, the new version supports the World Wide Web Consortium's XML Schema Web standard.
Schemas tell a computer reading an XML document how to interpret special coding.
Manes said Sun decided to support SOAP after inspecting the new version of the technology that was released in April. You need a standard messaging system because it makes life easier. SOAP is intended to solve a dilemma faced by businesses over competing programming models. For the most part, software developers have settled on two ways to write business software. Microsoft supports a model that steers businesses to use its dominant Windows operating system.