Sun Microsystems: Redefining Business Model

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Authors: Pradip Sinha,
Associate Consultant,
ICMR (IBS Center for Management Research).

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The New Dawn

Sun believes that companies should be able to easily move applications, Web services, and even portals, to other standards-based vendor platforms without the cost associated with such moves today.

Jim Shuder, Senior Director, Sun ONE Application Server

In view of Sun, for most companies, the pressure to roll out new value-added Services on Demand to customer, suppliers, and partners has never been higher.

Unfortunately, prevailing business models in the software industry have made this a daunting task for most. Once a company has invested in software from a given set of vendors, changing can be both painful and expensive. But with the launch of a new software strategy, which aims not only to cut costs dramatically but also to simplify the way software pricing is done, Sun not only promises to change the status quo but also the business model of the software industry.

According to Jim Shuder, Senior Director, Sun ONE Application Server, Sun Microsystems, "Sun believes that companies should be able to easily move applications, Web services, and even portals, to other standards-based vendor platforms without the cost associated with such moves today." On making the J2EE 1.3 compatible, he says, "Sun ONE Application Server free on all platforms Sun is making that a reality."

The company claims that with the Solaris 9 Operating Environment, middleware components, such as the Sun ONE Application Server 7, Platform Edition and the Sun ONE Directory Server, are now an integral part of the Operating System (OS) itself. And, the fully J2EE 1.3 compliant Sun ONE Application Server functionality is now free on all major OS platforms, including the Solaris OE, Linux, Microsoft Windows, HP-UX, and AIX platforms.

With the new architecture and business model behind the Sun ONE Application Server 7, Platform Edition and the Sun ONE Portal Server 6, enterprises can plan for portability across all standards-based platforms, claims the company. And, the surprise packet is the introduction of the StarOffice 6 Office Suite, which brings alternative office productivity software to the enterprise with multi-platform functionality; an attempt to challenge MS's hegemony in OS.

The company's grand plan includes introduction of six systems: The Sun Java Enterprise System, formerly known as Project Orion; the Sun Java Desktop System, formerly known as Project Mad Hatter; Java Studio, designed for developers; Sun Java Mobility System; the Sun Java Card System; and Sun N1 for dynamic and utility computing. The company is also introducing new pricing model for these systems, which will be based on a per-employee basis. The Sun Java Enterprise System will cost $100 per employee per year. It has already signed up a number of customers promising affordability of its products as the USP vis-à-vis its competitors.

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