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Sun the software company?
Latest acquisition shows Sun's intent to move aggressively into the middleware market
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An additional challenge for Sun's software push is remaining open to non-Sun platforms and technologies. Sun officials promise that this is their company's intention.
"One of the assurances that McNealy gave us was that he wanted NetDynamics to be the leading application server on the Windows NT platform," said Zach Rinat, former CEO of NetDynamics.
Sun also has to walk a delicate line as a Java partner, supplier of core technology, and Java competitor releasing Java products. Seventy percent of NetDynamics servers are on the Windows NT platform, and they implement Microsoft's JView Java virtual machine. Sun is in legal battles with Microsoft over the latter company's implementation of Java. As a result, JView support will not continue, according to Alan Baratz, president of the Java Software Division.
The big question is if Sun can depart from its old model of using its software business to sell more Unix boxes or whether it can grow an independent revenue from its investment in Java technology.
Sun's Java acquisitions
Two key areas of investment are the embedded systems area and the Java infrastructure and tools area.
Java infrastructure and tools:
- Lighthouse Design -- Java productivity applications and tools
- Longview Technologies -- Developer of Sun's HotSpot Dynamics compilation technology
- NetDynamics -- Java Application Server, middleware, and tools
- Sarrus -- Java scheduling technology
Embedded systems and consumer products:
- Chorus -- Java realtime operating system vendor
- Diba -- Set-top box and device manufacturer
- Integrity Arts -- Smart card technology company
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