Update: Sun tries to change the software game with Orion

SAN FRANCISCO -- Sun Microsystems has laid out details of a new program called project Orion that will see the company ship all of its key software products packaged with the Solaris operating system in synchronized quarterly releases.

Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president of software at Sun, unveiled Orion Tuesday during the second day of Sun's analyst conference here, calling it "the redefinition of an operating system." While Schwartz provided limited details on the new project, he did say that Sun plans to ship all of its infrastructure products such as the Sun ONE (Open Net Environment) Web Server, Application Server and its server management products along with Solaris -- Sun's flavor of Unix. By including all of its software packaged as one product, Sun is hoping to make life easier on customers trying to manage myriad applications with differing licensing and pricing schemes.

"(Companies) have had to hand-assemble the parts that we can deliver on the system itself," Schwartz said, during his presentation. "We will be delivering all of the products on a quarterly release train that will become a single product called Solaris."

Sun is banking on the notion that companies are in search of a more simplified way to manage their software purchases. Up to this point, most companies buy a variety of products such as an application server or Web server from different companies, which means they need to keep track of a wide range of pricing models. Sun said it can make this process easier by giving customers the option of buying one, entire software suite from Sun with a common licensing model.

The company has positioned this attack against Microsoft and IBM -- both of which offer a similar line of infrastructure software for running business applications.

Sun has yet to provide details on how Orion might be priced but said it could come as a yearly subscription fee or a model based on the number of users within a company, for example. Companies will have the option of purchasing part of the Orion software suite and replacing the Sun ONE application server with a competing product from a company such BEA Systems, Schwartz said. Sun plans to make its pricing public in the coming months.

He elaborated slightly in a conference call Wednesday with press and analysts, saying that while details are still being worked out, Sun anticipates three pricing models: a traditional licensing model akin to what is now offered, a metered model, and a flat-rate fee assessed at regular intervals. Sun will push hard for customers to go the flat-rate route, which it believes will be most beneficial for them, he said.

Cost savings will be dramatic under the new plan, Schwartz pledged. A company with 20,000 employees could purchase the Orion suite for a tenth what it would cost to purchase products piecemeal from Sun's rivals, he estimated.

One reason for this new approach stems from the way customers have reacted to the quarterly release cycle for Solaris, Schwartz said. Sun releases Solaris updates every quarter with new patches, bug fixes and options. It now plans to release all of its software products on this same schedule -- again to try and make life simpler on customers, Schwartz said.