Sun plots Java comeback

Sun Microsystems is trying to climb back into the market for Java server software with rapid standards compliance and aggressive pricing.

The company on Monday said it has released the Java Application Server Platform Edition 8, the latest version of Sun's server software product for running programs written with Java. The software is available for free download and deployment. By making its application server and Java development tools available for free, Sun hopes to seed the market for its Java software and generate sales of more complex products. In the second half of the year, Sun plans to release a more advanced Enterprise Edition of the Application Server Platform, expected to cost $10,000 per processor.

Despite having invented Java, Sun rivals BEA Systems and IBM outran Sun in the Java application server market in the late 1990s. With the new strategy and software release, however, Sun is hoping to regain some market share.

"We're a lot better off than people realize," said Dennis MacNeil, product marketing manager on J2EE and Java system products at Sun. "Sun has become price-competitive...and the combination of price pressure and interoperability is a big issue (with customers)."

One way to enhance competitiveness is to rapidly introduce products that adhere to the latest industry standards. Sun's application server meets the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4 specification, which makes it easier to write and run Web services applications written with Java. The company has also met guidelines for adhering to the Web services specifications of the Web Services Interoperability group's Basic Profile.

Sun is one of the first companies to meet the J2EE 1.4 specification, which is a set of blueprints on how software makers should write their software. When products from different providers meet the standards, customers should be able to run Java programs on application servers from J2EE-compliant products. IBM has released a preview version of its WebSphere Java application server that complies with J2EE 1.4. Oracle last month released a technical preview of its J2EE 1.4-compliant application server.

Customers can also go with open-source application servers such as Tomcat, JBoss and Geronimo, which is still under development.

Java Application Server Platform Edition 8 supports JavaServer Faces, an enhancement to industry guidelines for building user interface software with Java.

By offering its Java application server software available via free download, Sun hopes to drive sales of Java Enterprise System, a suite of Java server products that will include the application server, portal and identity management software, MacNeil said. The company charges $100 per employee per year for the Java Enterprise System.

In the second half of the year, Sun will release the Enterprise Edition of its application server, which will be designed for customers looking for more reliable server software. It will include clustering software to ensure that a backup server can keep an application running during a failure.

Java Enterprise System is not about Java

This comment is for the article "Sun Plot Java Comeback", by Martin LaMonica, 04/12/04, in which the writer called Sun's Java Enterprise System as "a suite of Java server products".

Java Enterprise System (JES) is not about Java. Rather, it is Sun software stack that includes many server software, such as Directory, Mail, or Portal, running on top of Solaris or RedHat Linux.

While the integral approach makes sense, especially if all the components work in a unified manner, the JES name is confusing. Many so-called "Java server" in the stack are old iPlanet software rebranded and have nothing to do with Java.

The name is Sun's attempt to bank on the popularity of the Java name. Its controversial at best, IMHO. I wonder if even professional writers at CNET were confused enough to call EJS "a suite of Java server products", how would end-users get Sun's message?

By the way, the article's title "Sun Plots Java Comeback" is misleading too, since Java is well and alive. The title should be changed to "Sun Plots App Server Comeback", or "For Sun, front-runner in standard compliance is to avoid being also-ran in the market" (Its too long, I know).

Regards,

Tung Tran
Software Developer