Software group executive vice president Jonathan Schwartz told ComputerWire ISVs would be able to plan and build products around a set of integrated software that conforms to predictable release cycles under Project Orion.

[ISVs] want to know when they can roll something out, Schwartz said during a recent interview. That’s one biggest single advantages, where it’s not about the features it’s about the efficiency.

Talk about Project Orion has largely centered on expected benefits to end-users, and the efficiencies they would likely experience of being able to predict upgrade cycles across Sun’s software stack.

Sun, like Corel Corp, Novell Inc and Ximian Inc, seek to exploit dissatisfaction among customers’ over Microsoft’s licensing in areas where they compete such as office suites or messaging.

They face varying degrees of success, with Corel now seeking possible acquisition while Sun was last week dismissed by one Windows applications specialist as irrelevant.

Schwartz, though, re-iterated Sun’s own focus on customers saying, for example, that security changes planned for Microsoft’s Office 2003 and Windows Server 2003 would provide a further opportunity for Sun to snatch customers from Microsoft.

Office 2003, due this summer, will implement Microsoft’s Rights Management Services (RMS), an XML-based system to control distribution of content in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Users of older version of Office will only be able to view Office 2003 documents using a patch for Internet Explorer (IE), not edit or create them.

This will likely pose an administrative headache for organizations who must stage Office 2003 rollouts by groups of users, and who must also rely on a small degree of collaboration between groups.

Schwartz said RMS represents an opportunity for Sun to promote its StarOffice suite, as part of an integrated software stack, in conjunction with its planned Linux desktop running on Intel hardware. He claimed the Sun software stack would cost users 50% less than Microsoft’s software.

Dismissing RMS, Schwartz added: The replacement for the PC was a more secure PC. It was a more secure personal network… customers want choice, freedom and productivity.

Sun’s focus on partners, though, is designed to ensure that an ecosystem of companies lines-up behind the Sun ONE applications and web services stack offering specialist functionality where needed and filing gaps that Sun’s own engineering efforts cannot cover.

This would potentially help drive Sun ONE against application and web services offerings from Microsoft Corp and Sun’s numerous Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) rivals such as BEA Systems and IBM.

In the past, Sun has succeeded in sewing confusion by supporting a broad range release dates, which invariably slipped, across its large software portfolio.

They [ISVs] want a co-ordinated infrastructure on which they can build their business. Companies in the vertical application space can rely on a uniform set of infrastructure. That offers a dramatic cost saving and enormous productivity, Schwartz said.

Project Orion is due to see the Solaris 9.0 operating system integrated with Sun’s email, collaboration, calendar, provisioning and high availability software by the end of the calendar year. Solaris is already integrated with the company’s application server, directory server, identity server and portal software.

Source: Computerwire