Sun’s Latest Turn With Open Source Nuts And Bolts

Sun Microsystems  has updated its Java
Enterprise System, a software suite the company offers to prop up customers’
Web services , composite applications and collaboration
tools.

Java Enterprise System is Sun’s answer to IBM’s  WebSphere and BEA’s  WebLogic
infrastructure software suites. The three rivals try to lure customers with
building blocks for service-oriented architectures (SOA) that support
newfangled Web 2.0 services, such as wikis, blogs and mashups.

The Java ES 5.0 includes a new monitoring console to make it easier for
customers to watch applications run in a system, said Jim McHugh,
vice president of software infrastructure at Sun.

Java ES 5.0 also features a new common installer to help administrators
install and configure in global, local, sparse and root computing zones to
boost system resource utilization.

At the component level, McHugh said Identity Manager 7.0, Identity Auditor
and Identity Manager Service Provider Edition have been rolled into one
product for Java ES 5.0, enabling developers to automate periodic access
review for legislative compliance. Software that alleviates compliance pains
is in demand, thanks to Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA.

Also, Application Server Enterprise Edition is the first to incorporate Java EE 5.0, enabling it to deploy faster and work better with NetBeans 5.0.

The Directory Server Enterprise Edition boasts a virtual directory to
provide admins virtual views of data pulled form multiple directories or
databases.

Java ES 5.0 Portal supports AJAX for the desktop, while Service Registry
supports ebXML Registry Profile for Web Services
and support for JavaDB running in network server mode.

Java ES 5.0 continues to be a free, subscription-based software suite as per
Sun’s enlightened software model of offering
its software via an open source license.

Customers who choose to procure assurance and support may do so for the
entire software system for $140 per employee per year. Or they may purchase
individual suites for $50 per employee per year.

Sun’s contention for the last year has been that customers will download the
software, play with it, and come back to Sun to pay for software support.

This can be valuable for customers who want to go deeper into deploying Java
ES products, such as the Java Composite Application Platform Suite (Java
CAPS) for deploying composite applications as part of an SOA.

Some customers seem to appreciate the open source/paid licensing options.
McHugh said that since 2006 the total number of Java ES subscribers has increased to more than 1.3 million.

“We think that everyone should have complete, free and open access to all of
our software.”