Vice president for Sun’s Java web services Mark Bauhaus said the Sun ONE Application Server 8.0 would be the industry’s first application server certified to Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4.

Bauhaus refused to say when that will launch, but repeated Sun’s commitment that the Enterprise Edition of the J2EE 1.3 ONE Application Server 7.0 is due this Fall.

Bauhaus’ commitment comes after Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison challenged industry leader BEA Systems Inc, at JavaOne in June 2001, to become the first vendor offering an application sever that met the current J2EE specification, version 1.3.

Oracle ultimately lost Ellison’s self-imposed race, being beaten by BEA who enjoyed a lead of five months.

Bauhaus’ made his bold prediction despite admitting only moments before to press in San Francisco, California, that Sun and others had oversold another of the company’s technologies – Jini.

Launched in January 1999, Jini was pitched as technology that could help discover any network-connected device but that is only now finding its niche as a technology for dynamic discovery.

Jini’s applications today include discovery of blades in Dell Computer Corp server systems and discovery of application servers in a cluster by Macromedia Inc’s application server.

A second version of the Jini Starter Kit that focuses on performance, security, development tools and ease of use is now due this June. Sun would not comment on whether version 2.0 of the starter kit would be ready for JavaOne, next month.

Previewing JavaOne 2003, Bauhaus told press that Sun had reconsidered, but ultimately rejected, a re-naming of Jini to free it from the baggage of the past. [Jini] got a whole lot of baggage… we fell for the hype, he said.

Despite past over confidence, Sun is bullish about its application server. Application servers are increasingly seen as part of a platform play by vendors who are integrating the software with other offerings. As such, Sun is planning Project Orion, a stack integrated with Sun’s Portal, Identity Server, Network Server, Integration and Portal.

A major part of these platforms is integration and Bauhaus believes that Sun can ultimately beat computing rival IBM, owner of CrossWorlds, MQ Series and Global Services among other integration enablers, by working on changes to underlying Java specifications via the Sun-backed Java Community Process (JCP).

Sun has backed last month’s submission to the JCP of Java Specification Request (JSR) 208 for Java Business Integration (JBI) for J2EE 1.4. JSR 208’s goal is to describe an industry standard business integration engine and transformation process.

JSR 208 will work with the BEA-backed JSR 207, to define metadata, interfaces and a runtime model for business processes to be implemented using Java and deployed in J2EE containers.

Bauhaus called IBM’s approach to integration retro adding Sun is backing a change that would affect the industry in the next two years. It’s a good one- to two-year lifecycle before we are all roaring to the market with lots and lots of products, Bauhaus said.

If they are smart [IBM] will support and endorse it.

Source: Computerwire