Unisys Servers Get JVM

Unisys Corp. is bringing Java capabilities to its midrange and high-end Windows-based servers.

The Blue Bell, Pa., company has released a JVM (Java virtual machine) tuned for its Windows-based ES7000 systems, which can scale up from four to 32 Intel Corp. processors.

The JVM, which as of early last week could be downloaded for free, enables enterprises to consolidate scattered Java-based applications—many of them being used for front-end Web-based tasks—into a single, larger system.

This consolidation enables the applications to scale up, frees space in data centers and eases server management, Unisys officials said. Enterprises can bring these applications onto Wintel servers, rather than having to rely on more expensive Unix systems, the officials said.

Unisys, which already offers JVM technology on its high-end mainframe-level ClearPath systems, took the JVM from Sun Microsystems Inc.s Sun ONE offerings and tuned it to take advantage of such features as advanced memory and thread management in the ES7000 family.

John Meyer, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc., said Unisys move makes sense, given that 58 to 60 percent of companies use both Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition and Microsoft Corp.s .Net in their IT infrastructures.

"This is part of their formula," said Meyer, in Olney, Md. "People will say, We can scale both of these environments [on a single box]. This is Unisys opportunity to demonstrate they can do it."

The key, Meyer said, is to have major application server vendors, such as BEA Systems Inc., Sun or IBM, support their technology on Unisys ES7000 line and JVM.