A JEMS Of A Partner Program

Professional open source vendor JBoss rolled out a new partner program to connect its Java-based software to applications created by third parties, officials said Monday.

The Certified Partner Program expands the Atlanta, Ga.-based company’s existing program and fleshes it out to meet the demands enterprise customers have for software integration in the workplace.

The JBoss Enterprise Middleware System (JEMS) is suite of open source projects, which include the popular JBoss application server and Hibernate projects, upon which JBoss sells its services and support.

Tom Cooper, who became JBoss vice president of worldwide channels Monday, said JEMS has been successful in the enterprise world. Now that they’ve set up their platform, he said, what customers are asking for is more applications to tie into the middleware stack and experts to help with the integration.

“We had an existing partner program but it was not blown out to really support the goals of those enterprise customers,” he said.

The partner program is broken down into four different categories:

  • The certified solution partner program is for developers who create applications that sit on the JBoss middleware stack;
  • Certified technology partners bundle or embed parts or the whole JEMS suite into their own applications. First and second level support is handled by the company with JBoss providing advanced technical support;
  • Certified systems integrators provide consulting, integration and migration services to enterprise companies;
  • Authorized service partners provide training and support for JBoss applications where the company doesn’t have much of a presence.

Partners can take advantage of joint marketing opportunities and are able to resell JBoss support and services as well as gain access to JBoss’ knowledge base and get referral bonuses for sending business to JBoss.

Cooper said the expanded partner program represents a “signficant” investment on the company’s part. Currently, the company has more than 70 ISVs participating, a dozen of which signed up in the past month.

JBoss is devoting considerable resources to its outreach program and not just to its partner program. Earlier this year the company launched its Open Source Federation program to get open source projects to integrate on the JEMS platform, with JBoss providing infrastructure and project launch assistance.

JBoss also announced Monday the launch of professional and solution certification programs.

Developers, architects and systems integrators can now get rated as a Certified Developer, Certified JEMS Expert or Master JEMS Architect. The company will offer three separate tracks — web tier, middleware and administration — and consist of tests, course attendance and specialty training credits.

Software developers can certify their products are integrated with JEMS products, putting their applications through a series of interoperability tests and subsequent performance results. It’s similar to a program launched by Novell last week, the Validated Configuration Program, which certifies third-party hardware and software running on the Linux platform.

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