Sun's new partner initiative is designed to make it easier for customers to manage complex content.Sun Microsystems Inc. on Monday launched a new partner initiative at the AIIM show in New York called the iForce Content Network, designed to make it easier for customers to manage complex content.
The network brings together more than 30 companies, most in the content and document management, collaboration, and streaming media spaces, who will build solutions on Sun technology.
These content management applications will specifically target the financial services, retail, health care, manufacturing and government verticals, Sun officials said.
Initial members of the Sun iForce Content Network include Agari Mediaware Inc., Artesia Technologies Inc., Autonomy Corp., ContextMedia Inc., Day Software Inc., Documentum Inc., Engage Inc., FatWire Corp., FileNet Corp., Gauss Interprise Inc., Interwoven Inc., Intraspect Software, Open Text Corp., Pinnacor Inc., Pixion Inc., RealNetworks Inc., Stellent Inc., StreamServe Inc., ThoughtWeb Inc., Verity Inc., Vignette Corp. and Xerox Corp.
The program is designed to enable Suns partners to develop on the Sun One platform, which includes the Sun One Portal Server, Sun One Application Server, Sun One Directory Server and Sun One Identity Server.
The iForce Content Network will provide joint marketing programs, early access to new Sun technologies and cross-community support, Sun officials said.
Sun and some partners made several other announcements at AIIM. FatWire and Sun announced that a free five-user license of FatWire Spark pCM (portal content management) is available immediately for download for Sun One Portal Server 6 customers.
Customers can use Spark pCM to create, deploy and manage content incorporating multiple data types and deliver that content, personalized to users requirements, via a portal, officials said.
Sun and Artesia, meanwhile, launched the Digital Asset Management Reference Architecture, a specification for the design and deployment of a content management system for television and rich media enterprises. Using this Reference Architecture, media businesses can leverage and extend their legacy platforms into next-generation digital asset management systems, according to officials of the two companies.
The Reference Architecture describes each component, function and interface needed to deliver video, audio and rich media to heterogeneous and distributed networks for broadcast television and other professional media environments, and can be applied to education, finance, medical and government enterprises, officials said.
Digital Asset Management Reference Architecture components include media ingest, logging, metadata creation, database management, security, transcoding, media storage with integrated Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM), support for post production, and integration with both television automation and scheduling systems.
ContextMedia announced the integration of its Interchange Suite content management integration product with Sun One Portal Server 6. ContextMedia officials said the integration will help organizations accelerate their enterprise content integration initiatives and make it easier for end users to discover, access and utilize digital content.
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