Sun is today expected to announce the Java Application Suite, Identity Suite, Communications Suite, Availability Suite and the Web Infrastructure Suite all packaged bundles of Java Enterprise Server (JES) components.
Each suite is available for an annual subscription of $50 per user and comes bundled with Sun’s Java Studio Creator and Java Studio Enterprise.
The full JES suite, meanwhile, is going up in price. JES is now priced $140 per user, up from $100, as the company adds a portal plug-in for secure remote and mobile access, Identity Management, acquired last year by Sun with Waveset Technologies Inc, and Sun’s N1 provisioning software.
Sun is introducing the bundles, due at today’s quarterly NC launch, and reduced price to meet specific customer deployment scenarios and budgets. JES is an integrated stack with components including the company’s application server, portal, web server, calendar, directory server and instant messaging.
The company currently claims 425,000 employees at an unknown number of companies use JES, with customers scattered across different industries, although there is a bias towards Sun’s traditional markets of telecoms and financial services sectors.
Sun is attempting to broaden its focus on other sectors however, notably in government, healthcare and manufacturing, while also targeting small and medium businesses along with department-level users.
SMBs and department-level users generally have less IT support, which is why Sun is simplifying installation with bundles based around specific functionality, along with relatively small IT budgets. Customers can upgrade to the full JES by contacting Sun, which will upgrade their license to the full price while also turning on functionality in the JES stack that has been turned off in the modules.
Vice president of marketing for developer and application platforms Joe Keller said: This allows them [customers] either a better price point or lets them focus on the components they want.
Sun’s decision to focus on verticals and SMBs follows similar moves by IBM Corp and BEA Systems Inc, who re-organized sales and marketing, and launched bundles products serving specific customer needs, like integration, or markets, such as manufacturing.
Keller dismissed moves by IBM a services realization saying Sun can help drive-down customers’ costs.
He denied JES had come-up short on customer subscriptions during its first year or that Sun is late to market in identifying verticals and SMBs. [JES] is on target based on where we looked at where the program would be. We believed there was plenty of off to expand the program – it’s been a good first year, Keller said.
Four of the suites are targeted verticals and big business: the Application Suite features Sun’s portal server, version 8.1 of Sun’s Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4 application server, web server, portal server, portal SRA and portal mobile access; the Availability Suite includes Sun cluster and Sun agents; Communications Suite includes Sun’s Messaging Server, Calendar Server and Instant Messaging that includes synchronization with Microsoft Corp’s Outlook e-mail client; and Identity Management Suite includes Sun’s Access Manager, Directory Server Enterprise Edition.
The Web Infrastructure Suite, meanwhile, is aimed at SMBs and departments who want a toehold in JES. Features include Sun’s J2EE 1.4 application server, web server, directory server enterprise edition, Access Manager and web proxy server.
