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Sun answers Microsoft with Net services push

J2EE, XML occupy the core of the Sun ONE initiative

By Ashlee Vance, IDG News Service, 02/06/01

February 6, 2001 -- In a move that appears aimed squarely at Microsoft Corp.'s .Net Internet initiative, Sun Microsystems Inc. on Monday unveiled the Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE), which includes server software, development tools and other products for building Web-based e-commerce applications and services.

Sun Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Scott McNealy said the effort embraces a series of new and existing software products, including offerings from iPlanet Commerce Solutions, a joint venture between Sun and America Online Inc., as well as services from Sun itself.

Large businesses and service providers will be able to take the tools and applications and use them as components to roll out their own Web-based services to customers and employees, Sun officials said. The effort fulfills an Internet strategy that has been under way at Sun for seven years, according to McNealy.

"Everything we have been doing are Net services," McNealy said. "We have been doing this for a long time. It's all we know how to do."

The Sun ONE framework could be used to offer services, such as a restaurant or a shopping guide, based on a user's situation, and then deliver the information to PCs, phones or handheld computers. The initiative includes Web services that will be provided by Sun that modify their behavior based on the identity of the user, as well as his location, timing, and level of access permission, the executives said.

Products highlighted here included the Sun ONE Webtop technology developer release 1.0, as well as updates to a slew of iPlanet server software products, which include iPlanet Directory, Web, Application, Portal, Commerce, and Communications servers.

The Webtop technology helps service providers deliver productivity applications via a branded, customized Internet-based desktop that users will be able to access on any type of device, officials said. Sun also claimed the new technology changes Web browsers from "read only" to "read and write."

The initiative appears to put Sun more into competition than ever with Microsoft, which announced its .Net plans in June last year. Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp., and others have unveiled comparable Internet software initiatives.

Like Sun's, Microsoft's initiative includes applications and tools for developing new types of productivity, scheduling and commerce services over the Web. Also like Sun, Microsoft's plan includes some enabling services that will be provided by Microsoft itself. Sun's effort will likely draw heavily on its Java programming language; Microsoft .Net uses a rival programming language also unveiled last year, C# (pronounced C sharp). Both efforts make heavy use of XML (extensible markup language).

Sun was among the first of the big IT vendors to promote the idea of network computing and Web-based services, but some observers have criticized it for being slow to bring its Web services strategy to market. Executives seemed at pains to emphasize that Sun has been focused on the Internet for longer than its rivals.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

 

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