Microsoft Joins Open GIS Consortium as a Principal Member

October 21, 2007 -- Today, the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) announced that Microsoft Corporation has joined the consortium as a Principal Member. Government agencies worldwide are realizing the power of geospatial applications to meet their missions in ways that are unprecedented - from public safety applications to famine and hunger relief.

According to David Schell, Chairman and CEO of OGC, "As dependency on geospatial information resources for dealing with such global issues as climate change and disaster preparedness continually increases, it is of the greatest importance that the work of the consortium be supported by the deep infrastructure and information resources which Microsoft represents."

Through its involvement with OGC, Microsoft is able to ensure the geospatial interoperability of its technology, including its flagship geospatial offerings -- the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform - and Microsoft SQL Server 2008, which is scheduled to ship in the second quarter of calendar year 2008. Microsoft will submit the SQL Server 2008 geometry datatype for compliance to the Open GIS® Simple Features for SQL standard, a significant move towards ensuring that geospatial data can be seamlessly layered upon and integrated within SQL Server 2008. By making its products OpenGIS compatible Microsoft will support both developers and users who wish to work with the most extensive assortment of the world's geospatial data resources currently available.