Sun Heats Up Java Vendor Wars

Sun Microsystems is adopting a “take no prisoners” approach to its Java war with IBM and BEA .

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based network computer maker introduced a bevy of new developer tools and new server software Tuesday designed to get the company back in the hunt with Java-based distributions. Sun currently ranks well behind its two biggest rivals on that score.

Over the last few years, Sun has been working to make Java technology easier and more accessible to a broader audience of developers. Earlier this
week, Sun added
Unified Modeling Language (UML) to its enterprise Java developer platform.
Now the company is looking to make it easier to develop Web services and
service oriented architectures based on the Enterprise Java
platform, known as J2EE 1.4.

To that end, Sun released a new edition of the Sun Java System
Application Server. Version 7 for its Enterprise Edition is a free download
that supports not only Sun’s platforms but also Apache Tomcat and Microsoft
IIS. The platform also includes database certification supporting Oracle,
IBM, Sybase, Pointbase and MS SQL Server.

New features include a reference architecture that scales linearly to
more than 100 CPUs at a time; support for multiple operating systems,
including Solaris, Linux, Red Hat, HP-UX 11i and Windows; and added
Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) and Remote Method Invocation over Internet
Inter-Orb Protocol (RMI/IIOP) failover.

Sun also released its Java Web Services Developer Pack (Java WSDP) for
J2EE version 1.4 as a free download. With 1.2 million downloads to date, the
software will eventually find its way into most if not all of enterprise
Java applications.

“The challenge [our competitors] are finding is the momentum around Sun’s
application server and developers are using the technology to add to a
resurgence of our application server from the ground up,” Joe Keller, Sun
vice president of Java development platforms, told internetnews.com.

Slated for release in June, the Java WSDP 1.4 includes core Java Web
services technologies for development, such as: Java
API for XML Processing (JAXP), Java API for XML-based Remote Procedure Call
(JAX-RPC), Java API for XML Data Binding (JAXB), Java API for XML Registries
(JAXR), JavaServer Pages (JSP Pages), and JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL).

The Java WSDP 1.4 also supports the latest OASIS Web Services Security
(WSS) specification that lets developers to build secure Web services,
including XML digital signature (JSR105), XML message encryption and
authentication for Web services applications. The company said testing
configurations with the Java WSDP also allows developers to install
applications on the Sun Java System Application Server, Sun Java System Web
Server or Apache Tomcat.

The company also said it is one of several supporting contributors to the
WS-MessageDelivery specification, which is the “callback pattern,” in which one service sends a request to a second service. Instead of waiting idly
for a reply, the requesting services continues working until notified that the second
service has processed the request.

Keller said Sun intends to keep the pressure on its rivals. Next month, the company is planning to announce more than a dozen changes to its hardware and software lineups at its second NC’04 event in Singapore.

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

News Around the Web