Sun launched the Java Enterprise System, formerly Project Orion for servers, to be priced $100 per user per year, and the Java Desktop System, previously codenamed Mad Hatter, priced $100 per desktop or $50 per employee per year.

Sun also has also folded its Sun ONE Studio into Java Enterprise Studio combined with expanded functionality to build identity and security-based applications, priced $5 per employee if bought with the Java Enterprise System or $1,895 if purchased separately.

Sun claimed to have integrated 225 separate product that will now be updated on a quarterly basis. Branding has also changed and while products that comprise Java Enterprise System, Java Desktop System and Java Enterprise Studio can still be purchased separately under the Sun ONE name, Sun ONE will be phased out.

Launching the products at Sun’s Network conference in San Francisco, California, yesterday, company CEO Scott McNealy said his company is attacking the cost and complexity of purchasing and integrating software.

Seizing on California’s headline-grabbing gubernatorial re-call election, he said: We are going to re-call cost and complexity. We think cost and complexity is driving everybody absolutely crazy.

McNealy said Sun is trying to solve complexity for service providers like Comcast Corp and salesforce.com, who can pass-on savings to small and medium sized business (SMBs). He claimed the software industry is needlessly over-populated and customers over charged by a factor of ten by companies who try to integrate software.

Java Enterprise System features Sun ONE Directory Server 5.2 and Java System Identity Server 6.1 for identity management; Java System Web Server 6.1, Java System Active Server Pages version 4, Java System Application Server 7, Enterprise Edition; Sun ONE Portal Server 6.2, Java System Portal Server, Secure Remote Access 6.2, Java System Portal Server, Mobile Access 6.2; Sun ONE Messaging Server 6.0, Java System Calendar Server 6.0, Java System Instant Messaging Server 6.1 for communication and collaboration; and high-availability features.

Organizations will not be charged for making Java Enterprise System available outside employees to customers, company software executive vice president Jonathan Schwartz said yesterday. The $100 price also includes professional services, migration, training and technical support. Java Enterprise System is due by end of calendar year 2003 from Sun and iForce partners.

Sun’s Java Desktop System features StarOffice 7.0, with Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE), Mozilla browser, e-mail, calendaring and instant messaging running on x86, Sparc, Solaris and SuSE Linux.

Sun will redistribute Adobe Software Inc’s Reader for customers to read PDF documents and announced support from Computer Associates Inc and RealNetworks Inc, and a partnership with EDS Corp for desktop enterprise migration and support services. Support is also expected from Macromedia Inc and Yahoo! Inc, while Sun announced a desktop partner certification program.

Schwartz added Sun will indemnify customers using its desktop and who use the SuSE Linux kernel. The willingness of vendors to protect customers running systems based on Linux through indemnification became a major issue in 2003, after SCO Group Inc set-about pursuing customers who it claims have breached the company’s copyright by running the open source operating system on PCs and servers.

The Java Desktop System will be available in Q4 2003. Sun will also offer customers a limited-time upgrade price from Windows on desktops, of $50.

Java Enterprise Studio features application development tools for Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), portal and integration tools, web services generation tools and an application framework for developers to build applications using class libraries that plug-into identity server and network server products, such as those from Sun.

Java Studio Enterprise for Solaris, x86, Linux and Windows 2000 Professional and XP Professional is due in the first quarter of 2004, with regular, quarterly updates planned.

Commenting on Sun’s decision to price aggressively, McNealy denied Sun is taking a defensive stand against more profitable software companies like Microsoft, who dominates the market for desktop operating systems and applications for example. Furthermore, the company claims it can cut total cost of ownership (TCO) in desktops, for example, by delivering a secure desktop through use of Java Card authentication and J2SE, protecting against worms that have attacked Windows-based systems.

On servers, Sun is also coming from behind against systems rival IBM in J2EE application servers.

Instead, McNealy predicted Sun’s low pricing would have a positive impact on Sun’s future revenue as the company by winning business through the appeal of integration, low pricing and simplified licensing. There’s billions of dollars in market opportunity from [our] top 65 [customers] alone. Do we think we can get to that? We believe we can.

Source: ComputerWire