Sun Pushing Java Into the Web Services Market

By Mitch Wagner, INW
iApplianceWeb
(03/20/03, 07:58:39 PM EDT)

Moutain View, Ca. -- Sun Microsystems on Wednesday introduced an integrated Web services development tool suite and launching a developer's portal. The company, which developed Java, has seen the Java tools and applications market taken from it by Web Services competitors including IBM and BEA Systems.

Sun said it is now shipping the Sun ONE Web Services Platform Developer Edition, designed to provide Java developers with a toolkit including integrated development environment (IDE), portal tools, network identity, application, and integration server. The software is promotional street-priced, starting April 1 for the next six months, at $999, with a list price of $5,000.

Sun also introduced the Sun Developer Network, an online community for Java developers to communicate with each other and obtain software and information about Java. The free information includes audiocasts, syndicated content from development partners, sample code, training, online tutorials, newsgroups, and discussion groups to allow developers to connect with each other and vendors, along with access to software subscriptions and evaluation downloads.

The portal is born out of developers' desire to have a one-stop-shop for support, said Sanjay Sarathy, director of the developer program office for Sun Microsystems.

"What a lot of developers have been doing is building applications that cut across multiple operating systems, technologies, and wireless protocols. They are looking for a functional architectural solution to their problems, rather than getting information from technology silos," Sarathy said.

Sun is following a trend among software development companies opening portals for their customers. Microsoft provides MSDN, BEA has a portal it calls dev2dev, and Macromedia has a portal called DevNe.

Forrester Research analyst John Meyer said the new programs should be helpful for developers, especially because the Sun Developer Network allows developers to seek out information and community based on their interests. It has special areas for mobile developers, corporate developers working in high-level languages, and engineers working on low-level code.

Despite Sun being the company that developed Java, it has difficulty selling tools and high-level software, lagging in competition with companies like Borland, IBM, Rational Software, and -- on its own platform -- Microsoft, Meyer said.

Sun disagreed, saying it is a contender, with about 3 million developers in its program, with visits to its Web sites increasing by almost 55 percent in the last six months, and developer newsletter subscriptions increasing 20 to 70 percent.

But Meyer said, "They will tell you they have trillions of hits on the Java site, trillions of downloads, but how many people are using their tools versus IBM, Borland, or someone else? It's going to take a while for those visitors to become Sun developers, as opposed to IBM and BEA developers who happen to want information on J2EE."

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