Part of Microsoft's .NET strategy, Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) enables an application programme written in any of several commonly-used programming languages to be run on any operating system using a common runtime programme rather than a language-specific one. Common Language Infrastructure provides a virtual execution environment comparable to the one provided by Sun Microsystems for Java programs. In both environments, CLI and Java use a compiler to process language statements (also known as source code) into a preliminary form of executable code called bytecode. Later, when a programme is run, its bytecode is compiled on the fly into the native code required by the machine architecture of a given computer. Common Language Infrastructure has been accepted as an open standard by ECMA, an international organisation for the promotion of technology standards. CLI is designed to make it easier to develop programmes that can be used as Web services.