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"Netscape TWO" -- The Open Network Environment (ONE) improved
How Netscape has enhanced its intranet strategy and formed a response to Microsoft's position in the corporate computing world
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Many analysts speculated that the adoption of Microsoft standards was very difficult for Netscape, given its public disdain for many of such standards in the past. That may or not be so, but what is clear is that Netscape is being very intelligent about doing whatever it must to win inside the firewall. Business is business, and in business winning is more important than ego.
Netscape AppFoundry
Always make money for your partners. That's good advice in any business. When your partners can also make money for you it's an even better objective, and that's what Netscape has done with another series of related initiatives.In addition to its own technology, Netscape has greatly extended ONE by providing instant access to a set of best-of-class development tools and applications for Java. This expanding set of intranet software (Netscape AppFoundry) is an attempt to stimulate the rapid deployment of applications based on ONE and to help corporations develop Java-based applications that are portable across operating system environments and computer architectures. AppFoundry provides Netscape with a set of powerful cross-platform software that will improve its chances of winning the competition with "platform-anchored" Microsoft.
Netscape also has provided an online community for IS professionals on the Web (AppFoundry Online) where developers can collaborate with other developers, software vendors, and consultants from companies such as Andersen Consulting, BBN Planet, and KPMG. The AppFoundry online community includes source code, trial versions of software tools, and technical resources for developers building Netscape-based solutions. AppFoundry applications are available at no charge or as trial versions. Some set of these applications will be bundled with a Netscape Enterprise Server CD.
With AppFoundry, Netscape does several things. It leverages its own development efforts by providing a comprehensive suite of Java development products that it could not afford to develop itself. By doing so, it also competes more successfully against Microsoft standards (especially ActiveX and DCOM) and the large community of Microsoft Visual Language developers whose existing tools, component libraries and vertical applications are being enhanced for the Internet/intranet. Microsoft has been recruiting these vendors for years as part of its ongoing attempt to evolve to distributed enterprise-wide applications, and these alliances have given Microsoft a major competitive advantage against Netscape.
With AppFoundry Netscape has made a major step in providing a one stop shopping environment for corporate developers, regardless of their existing computing environment. All on one site, developers can find the tools, applications, source, and consulting they need to build and deploy intranet applications. All the more reason to invest in ONE.
Even more importantly, Netscape has provided an exceptional promotional and distribution facility for their partners. Large numbers of vendors are vying for visibility on AppFoundry because it know it will help drive revenue. Netscape is making money for its partners, and in doing so it has learned how to win in the intranet. Corporations want solutions, not technology. Innovation is only relevant to companies when it leads to applications that can be deployed. AppFoundry is a major advance in this area for both Netscape and Java.
About the author
William Blundon is president and COO of SourceCraft Inc. (http://www.sourcecraft.com) a leading developer of intranet development tools using Java and other Internet technologies. His focus in the last seven years has been on distributed object environments and the Internet. He is a former director of the Object Management Group.- Feedback
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