Sun sees beyond ICAN purchase

Sun is re-branding technology it gained from SeeBeyond, mixing it with in-house software and presenting the package as the Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite, or Java CAPS. Sun acquired SeeBeyond, with its Integrated Composite Application Network (ICAN) technology, for US$387 million (NZ$570 million) last year.

“This suite is designed for enterprises that are looking to address challenging business integration development projects,” says Joe Keller, Sun’s vice president of marketing for SOA (service-oriented architecture) and integration platforms. “It combines the power of the pieces of the Java Enterprise System, like the Sun Java Application Platform Suite, with the integration technology from SeeBeyond to create a platform for building secure and scalable SOAs.”

With the package, Sun seeks to provide a solution that enables composite applications to be developed with almost no coding. The package can work on multiple operating platforms, including Sun’s own Solaris as well as on Windows or Linux.

Java CAPS comprises improved versions of both Sun and SeeBeyond technologies. Among the features are:

• Sun Java B2B Suite, for managing business-to-business requirements. This is former SeeBeyond technology.

• Sun Java ESB Suite, an enterprise service bus package for messaging infrastructures, supporting web services, XML, transformation and intelligent routing. This was also a SeeBeyond technology.

• Sun Java Application Platform Suite, which is Sun’s package for managing the performance and security of business applications. It enables use of process-driven portals that deliver role-based composite applications.

• Sun Java Web Infrastructure Suite, also a legacy Sun product. It is intended to improve web security, strengthen online customer and partner relationships and reduce web operations costs.

Sun’s SOA suites have drawn cautious approval from one industry analyst. Shawn Willett, principal analyst at Current Analysis, says “What they’ve done is taken the SeeBeyond suite and done some integration with their portal, the Sun portal, and they’ve done a little integration with the Java development tools”.

The eInsight business process tool from SeeBeyond is important for Sun, Willett says. “They really didn’t have a process tool before this.”

However, Sun isn’t the first to market with a process tool, he says. “Sun is coming out with something like this later than IBM or Microsoft.”

Java CAPS components are available as a complete package or separately. The full offering is priced at US$100 per employee per year, based on the number of employees at each user site.

The component suites of Java CAPS purchased individually cost US$50 per employee annually. The suites become available next month.

Sun is also unveiling three professional services programmes for SOA.

SOA Jumpstart Workshop is geared towards those getting started in SOA, while SOA Opportunity Assessment is for planning an organisation-wide SOA and SOA Governance Solution is for implementation, management and governance of an SOA. Services prices vary, starting at US$5,000.