Microsoft Corp. today announced the release of the beta specification for XML for Analysis -- a new protocol that extends the Microsoft business intelligence strategy to the Microsoft� .NET vision of Web services, allowing application developers to provide analytic capabilities to any client on any device or platform using any programming language. Built on HTTP, XML and SOAP and with more than 50 industry players having been instrumental in its development, XML for Analysis is being hailed by developers of analytical tools as the first cross-platform solution designed to address the unique challenges of analytical data access and manipulation.

As an extension to OLE DB for OLAP and OLE DB for Data Mining, XML for Analysis uses the Internet as the platform for building analytical applications from diverse sources of data, thus enabling developers to provide better Web services for analytic data. Corporations can now allow trading partners, customers and suppliers to access data easily and securely over the Web without worrying about client operating system, application language or middleware compatibility issues.