Sun bolsters tools business via partners |
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By William Fellows
11 Feb 2003 | The451, Special to SearchWebServices.com |
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Sun Microsystems has taken the first step in responding to IBM's and Microsoft's huge developer and partner efforts by consolidating its partner, ISV and developer programs under the iForce brand. Because the stakes are now so high – command of the software environment means control of the platform, the architecture and the datacenter – the company says it will also create a much more significant in-house developer tools business than it has right now, either via acquisition or Liberty Alliance-style partnerships.
Tools: Sun knows that to stay in the game, maintain control of the platform and maintain and secure an ISV base through the Web services build-out, it will need a more substantial and robust tools offering. Stuart Wells, SVP of Sun's market development organization, says Sun will need an in-house resource, either acquired or brought in through significant 'Liberty Alliance-type' partnerships.
IBM and Microsoft are throwing huge resources at creating developer ecosystems and communities that will write programs for their respective platforms, WebSphere and .NET (or Windows Server 2003).
However, the software tools market is now very different from what it was even just a year ago. There are a very limited number of players supplying integrated development environments. IBM has its WebSphere Studio Application Developer (WSAD) and Eclipse open source alternative, and has bought Rational to secure its position. Microsoft has Visual Studio.
So who's left? Borland and Macromedia are the two biggest remaining independents. Perhaps not for much longer.
Development effort: The Sun Developer Connection partner program has been integrated in the iForce partner program, providing a single entry point to Sun for software development companies and channel and integration partners. The idea is to increase collaboration across all partner communities. Sun claims to be working with some 18,000 ISVs now.
Web services are the focus, and Sun points to Evans research, which, it claims, shows that 72% of Web services development is being done in Java. Microsoft might not agree. Sun also cites the recent Bay Area event that pitched ISVs, developers and Sun and Microsoft engineers in a Web services debate, in which Java "smacked down" .NET.
At its recent UK developer conference, Sun pointed to a roadmap that positions technologies such as Jini and Jxta as key development targets in the future. However, there has been very little momentum around either technology, and outside of Sun, both are regarded as stovepipe and proprietary. Certainly, there are no apparent developer resources going into either from outside of Sun. The company claims some important Jini engagements at financial customers, but it seems unlikely that Jini or Jxta will be widely leveraged on Java. Wells agrees that neither is a priority for Sun right now.
Sun continues to make a lot of noise about its Sun Ray thin clients (nee JavaStation). But, as with Jini and Jxta, Sun Ray's future looks rather bleak. The economics of the thin client are attractive, but its time simply hasn't come yet (and may never), despite repeated attempts by Sun and other vendors to promote and market the concept. It's not always the best technology model that wins, and the PC industry isn't going to let a disruptive technology like thin clients take away any of the corporate desktop's turf.
Sun's StarOffice software appears to be gaining some traction, but that is largely due to the recent government and agency reviews of their own Microsoft software purchases, given the opportunity Linux affords. StarOffice is gaining visibility because of this.
The company's plays in the application server market also appear to be fading back to a Solaris-only effort. However, iPlanet is one thing Sun simply cannot afford to give up, says Wells. As the value opportunity moves to middleware and Web services, the risk of not controlling this stack is the risk of being dislodged from a much bigger value chain. That's why the company is hedging its bets with the BEA deal.
Competition: The architectural wars for control of the Web services are engaged – Java versus .NET. IBM and Microsoft have created significant developer resources in order to secure and control the programming model for next-generation services running on their respective WebSphere and Windows Server products. HP has feet in both Java and .NET camps. Sun knows it must add scale to its developer tools business – quickly – as it can't afford to lose control over the software stack on its own platforms. That's why it can't afford to give up its app server product, even if it's losing ground to IBM, BEA and Microsoft.
The451 assessment: Buying a tools company would help it compete with IBM and Microsoft, but Sun typically buys privately held firms in fast-moving sectors, and there aren't any here. The alternative – alliances – isn't likely to be sustainable in the long term. The problem is that Sun has never executed well in software, and its Forte tools and integration acquisition wasn't exactly an unqualified success. Still, it knows what it needs to do to stay in the game. Although Java is well established, there's much less likelihood that other Sun technologies, such as Jini and Jxta, will have much of a role in the future. Sun can't give up on app servers – even though it's way behind the market – because if it does, it risks losing its position on the platform itself.
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