Is the Sun Shining for Alice?

In late 2003, Sun Microsystems, one of the biggest IT companies of the world,

announced the launch of the Java Enterprise System (JES) and the Java Desktop

System (JDS). Both projects, the latter one code-named Madhatter-with

synchronized upgrades and a pay-per-user business model, were fashioned to

revolutionize the way enterprises functioned.

"We put our ears to the ground to hear the customer's voice and we

built JES and JDS based on what they wanted," says Vishal Dhupar,

director-sales for Sun Microsystems, India. Sun's JES is a suite of Java

server products that includes the app server, web server, directory server and

clustering software. JES has been traditionally fashioned to work on Sun's

Solaris 8 and 9 on the Sparc platform and Solaris 9 on x86 as well as Red Hat

Enterprise Linux AS 2.1 platforms. Sun's JDS is an open source desktop which

presents the users a Windows feel through a Linux GUI, Star Office and Ximian

among others. To make the offer more attractive to enterprises, Sun has kept the

prices for both aggressively low. While JES is offered at $100 per user for a

year, JDS costs the same or half if an enterprise is already using JES.

"Sun's JES has around 100 customers and JDS 1,000 customers worldwide at

present. We have not yet had any successes in India though we are in advanced

talks and will announce customers soon,' says Dhupar.

One might find that rather strange, especially, when you consider the fact

that more and more MNCs are setting up shops in the country. But for all the

talk about the Java systems offering a viable alternative, there are some big

issues holding back enterprise adoption. For one, though at last count Sun had

21 OEM's on JDS, none of them were a major international player. As such it

was heard from at least one individual user of JDS that they had problems

installing the software. Secondly, though Sun has been promising to upgrade JES

availability to Red Hat Linux's latest version 3 of its Enterprise AS, that is

yet to happen.

In fact, as the second release of JES and JDS scheduled for May looms, Sun

gives an impression of being generous on promises that never reach delivery.

While JES Release 2 has several additional features, it lacks in what many would

consider crucial to any Java software stack—an integration server. While Sun

has been talking about building one, they refuse to comment on when it'll hit

the market.

Also, while the JES runs on an AMD Athlon 64 bit environment, the system

itself utilizes only 32 bit capability still for many of its elements, like the

applications and portal services which, according to Sun, are only horizontally

scalable. It says that they will be upgraded "if/when market demands"

a need for 64-bit capability in those areas.

Ambitions, however, do not end there for Sun. Both JES and JDS are the first

babies of a suite of Java products, which include Java Mobility System for

telecom companies, the Java Card System for employee authentication, the Java

Creator Suite and the Java Enterprise Suite, both being development tools. All

of them add up to the overall picture of Sun's N1. Sun is also supposed to be

spending a lot of energy in developing a graphically enhanced 3D user interface—code

named Looking Glass, true to Sun's penchant for Alice in Wonderland—which

they say will take a few more quarters too.

But with profits slipping over the last twelve quarters and with their

historic truce with Microsoft being ascribed to a desperate need for cash,

ambitions are as much as the company might be left with. With IBM eating into

them from the server front and Microsoft still standing supreme on the desktop

front, Sun's philosophy on the Java family of products might be all good. But

whether Alice will wake up to a sunny day will depend on how far the

organization is capable of delivering on what it promises.

Sathya Mithra Ashok in Bangalore

Dark Side of the Sun

n Sun is yet to upgrade JES

availability to Red Hat Linux's latest Version 3 of its Enterprise AS, despite

promises. Even as the second release of JES and JDS looms, Sun has given an

impression of being generous on promises that never



reach delivery

n While JES Release 2 has several

additional features, it lacks in, what many would consider crucial to any Java

software stack, an integration server. Though Sun has been talking about

building one, it refuses to comment on when it'll hit the market

n JES runs on an AMD Athlon

64-bit environment, but the system itself still utilizes only 32-bit capability

for many of its elements, like the applications and portal services, which Sun

says are only horizontally scalable. It says though that they will be upgraded

"if and when the market demands" a need for 64-bit capability in those

areas