Sun Realigns Java Enterprise System

In a move to woo Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and HP (NYSE: HPQ) customers, Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: JAVA) released an update to its Java-based business application suite.

Sun Java Enterprise System (JES) Release 3, its flagship enterprise infrastructure software, is available for US$140 per employee per year. The enhanced version provides multi-platform support for major commercial operating environments, including Solaris 10 on both SPARC and x86, HP-UX, Linux, and Windows 2000 and XP.

"Sun Java Enterprise System continues the market transformation we started over a year ago," said John Loiacono, executive vice president of Sun's software group. "By tearing down the traditional barriers of software infrastructure cost and complexity, Sun Java Enterprise System is aligning business needs with an integrated set of industry leading, enterprise network services."

Leveraging Strengths

JES 3 includes Sun Java System Identity Manager, a software product that is designed to protect sensitive data, increase efficiency and reduce the costs of identity management.

Sun Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition targets telecommunications and financial services markets with transparent failover and recovery capabilities for J2EE applications and Web services.

And Sun Java System Portal Server Mobile Access renders and delivers personalized and aggregated content to partners, customers and employees using wireless mobile devices.

Real World Packaging

Yankee Group analyst Dana Gardner told TechNewsWorld that JES3 is a strong release that could prove more attractive to enterprises because it is better aligned with the levels of projects around which companies are evaluating software products.

"The new release improves the way that whole evaluation and specification processes work," Gardner said. "While it's not a dramatic change -- the products are quiet similar -- the packaging is much more aligned with the way the real world works."