Newsletter sign-up

View all newsletters

Sign up for our technology specific newsletters.

Enterprise Java

Email Address:

JAVAONE: Sun's SeeBeyond buy is seen as a sensible deal

Sun acquires SOA infrastructure vendor

By Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service, 06/28/05

June 28, 2005—Sun Microsystems has finally made a logical software acquisition with its purchase of SeeBeyond Technology Tuesday, after years of missed opportunities to buy technology to bolster what has never been a truly successful Java software business, industry observers said Tuesday at the vendor's annual JavaOne show in San Francisco.

Sun unveiled its intent to purchase composite application platform vendor SeeBeyond for 87 million early Tuesday just before Sun Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy delivered his keynote at JavaOne. The deal is expected to close in the fall.

Some noted that Sun might have made the move to acquire an SOA (services-oriented architecture) infrastructure vendor a bit sooner, as Sun has failed to have a solid strategy in this burgeoning space for some time. This has knocked them off the short list of software-infrastructure vendors enterprise customers will consider, observers said.

"I think this a great move for Sun that is long overdue," said Shawn Willett, principal with research firm Current Analysis. "Sun has had no integration capabilities and this fills an obvious hole. But more importantly, if Sun wants to get into the emerging ESB [enterprise service bus]/SOA/composite application space, this gives them a good head start."

Stephen O'Grady, senior analyst with Red Monk, echoed that sentiment. "You could certainly argue that [the deal] could've been made sooner," he said. "We've heard a number of times that the lack of an integration server is an issue with [Sun's] current suite of offerings. It makes them competitive in the integration area where they just haven't played before. It's a checklist item that you need to have for RFPs [requests for proposal] and the like."

A longtime Sun consulting partner also was bullish on the SeeBeyond deal, though he, too, admitted Sun might have moved sooner to make such an acquisition.

"I think this deal is fantastic," said Marc Maselli, president and CEO of Back Bay Technologies, an IT consultancy and development firm in Needham, Massachusetts. "Timing could be better—sooner would have been better from an outsider's point of view—but regardless, this deal will give Sun the shot in the arm they need to really get on integration, SOA, and ESB software purchase short lists."

In his keynote, McNealy said Sun, too, recognized the need to provide SOA software infrastructure to customers, but did not acknowledge that Sun's competitors, such as IBM and BEA Systems, have been providing similar technology ahead of Sun.

"We know there have been a lot of customers who've had a tough challenge integrating all of their applications together," McNealy said, explaining how SeeBeyond's Integrated Composite Application Network SOA architecture fits into Sun's Java software portfolio. "Giving them a way to integrate their applications without having to put [software] together into one stack seemed like a legitimate alternative proposal to put forth to the market."

Jim Demetriades, SeeBeyond founder and CEO, joined McNealy on stage Tuesday to give his take on why the deal makes sense for both parties. He said that since SeeBeyond's software is built on Java and supports other standard technologies, such as Java Business Integration (JBI), it's a good fit with Sun's Java Enterprise System stack.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

 

Improve efficiency with Visual Studio(r) 2010 Beta 2. - Microsoft

About Us | Advertise | Contact Us | Terms of Service/Privacy

Copyright, 2006-2008 Network World, Inc. All rights reserved.