Sun Microsystems and the remaining parts of
Netscape within America Online have launched a new satellite site
for their joint venture into e-commerce site hosting, to be dubbed iPlanet.
Launched earlier this year in the US, the alliance will centre around a new
“portal site” for planning and implementing cross-platform electronic
commerce initiatives, including content from Patricia Seybold Group and
articles from marketing journalists, according to the companies.
The iPlanet range of products includes modules for messaging, scheduling,
collaboration, directory and certificate servers, procurement, selling and
billing. Platform support includes HP, IBM, DEC, Linux, SGI, Microsoft
Windows and Sun.
“We’re very excited about the possibilities for the Alliance in this
region. Not only are consumers coming online in droves, but businesses are
embracing network computing on top of Internet standards as the
architecture for all their back-end systems,” said Rob Stewart, managing
director for iPlanet in Australia and New Zealand and former MD of Netscape
Australasia back when it was an independent entity.
Sun claimed that 40 percent of the 50 most trafficked sites on the Web
used software contained in the iPlanet range.
The local iPlanet venture will be based in Melbourne. Existing customers
include the Australian Tax Office, Charles Schwab, MCI WorldCom, France
Telecom, Lockheed Martin, Audi and Motorola.