Microsoft lures IBM Software architect Ferguson

Microsoft has hired Donald Ferguson away from IBM, where he was chief architect of IBM Software Group and a big thinker on Web services and service-oriented architectures.

Ferguson is now a Microsoft Technical Fellow in Platforms and Strategy, in the Office of the CTO, according to Microsoft.

"Understanding the trends, architecting and piloting the implications for existing and new products and evangelizing Microsoft's vision are the key aspects of Don's job," according to his biography.

At IBM, Ferguson sought to find integrations among IBM software products and he was co-author of many initial Web services specifications.