With a focus on Web services, Sun Microsystems Inc. announced Monday the delivery of two new versions of its application server and a new version of its accompanying development environment.
Sun announced that Sun ONE Application Server 7 is available in two versions: the Platform Edition and the Enterprise Edition. The Sun ONE Application Server 7 Platform Edition is what Sun will be bundling free with its Solaris 9 operating system in January, said Rick Schultz, group marketing manager for Sun ONE Java Web services.
The Platform Edition is available as a free download for Solaris and Windows, with availability for SunLinux, HP-UX and AIX following within 60 to 90 days, he said.
The Platform Edition delivers Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.3 compatibility, Web services support, and an HTTP server for lower-end JavaServer Pages and Web services development, Schultz said. Meanwhile, at $2,000 per CPU, the Standard Edition adds multiple deployments and remote administration and monitoring, he said.
An Enterprise Edition will add high-availability features such as cluster management, Web tier load balancing, and enhanced replication and persistence features, and will be available early in the second quarter of next year, according to Sun officials.
Suns new application server is tightly integrated with the companys new Sun ONE Studio for Java, Enterprise Edition, and the Sun ONE Application Framework, said Debra Andrade, senior product marketing manager for Sun.
Andrade said the new application server and tools “provide a better development experience” than previous versions.
Suns overall Java Web Services development platform features the new application server, Sun ONE Studio for Java 4.1 and Suns Java Web Services Developer Pack, which supports WSDL (Web Services Definition Language), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), ebXML (Electronic Business XML) and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration). The new platform also enables developers to use Suns Java Application Verification Kit for the Enterprise, which allows users to test the portability of their applications, Andrade said.
In addition, Andrade said, applications built on the new application server will run on any J2EE-compliant application server because Sun ONE Application Server 7 is based on the J2EE 1.3 Reference Implementation.
