Sun offers Java stack for $100 per employee
Company discloses pricing details for Project Orion, Project Mad Hatter
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Sun Microsystems Inc. disclosed pricing details Tuesday for Project Orion, an initiative that aims to radically simplify the way Sun delivers server software to its customers and in the process, Sun hopes, will make its software more widely used.
The company also announced pricing for Project Mad Hatter, a stack of open source software that takes aim at Microsoft Corp.'s hegemony on the desktop. Sun executives are due to talk up the offerings, along with other software developments, at its Sun Network show Tuesday morning in San Francisco.
Project Orion, which on Tuesday was renamed the Java Enterprise System, packages all of Sun's software infrastructure products together and ships them in synchronized quarterly releases with a simpler licensing model based on the number of employees a company has. Sun first discussed the idea at the start of the year, saying it's goal is to make life easier for customers who currently wrestle with numerous pricing schemes and release cycles.
The Java Enterprise System comprises dozens of products including the Sun ONE application server, directory server and portal server, Sun's clustering software, and products for messaging and calendering. The first release is due in November priced at $100 per employee per year, including support during business hours. An extra $10 per employee buys around-the-clock support.
"The complexity of our licensing terms has been outrageous and that's what customers have complained about. The products all had separate skews, licensing terms and pricing terms and every time a customer wanted to purchase one they had to get into a lengthy negotiation procurement process," said Ingrid Van Den Hoogen, a senior director of strategic marketing at Sun.
The new licensing terms will resolve that issue, she said. The quarterly delivery system should also make Sun's software easier to use, she argued, because the products have been integrated and pretested to work with one another.
Analysts said the offering should make the process of buying Sun software easier for its customers. It could also help Sun sell additional infrastructure software to existing customers, said Shawn Willett, principal analyst at Current Analysis Inc. of Sterling, Virginia.
"If the main application you use is supported by Sun and you've already got some of these Sun pieces in house, it will make it very easy for you to go with the rest of the Sun ONE stack," he said.
However, besides price, customers also look at the technical merits of software and whether their applications are supported, Willett noted. In part because of that, the new licensing terms are unlikely to have a big impact on Sun's share of the market against rivals like BEA Systems Inc. and IBM Corp., Willett said.
"I think it's unrealistic that someone is going to throw out the infrastructure software they have and go with Sun just because of the pricing and favorable licensing terms," he said. One interesting this to see will be whether IBM and BEA alter their pricing in response to Sun's move, he added.
