Sun Takes Developer Platform to New Level

As part of a strategic software announcement scheduled for next week, Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to unveil a new version of its developer tools aimed at Java application and Web services development.

Sun plans to announce the Sun ONE Developer Platform, a suite of tools and software under the Sun ONE brand to compete with technology from primary competitors such as IBM, sources said.

As part of the overall Sun ONE Developer Platform, Sun also plans to release a new version of its application server–a version of which the company last month said will be integrated into the companys Solaris operating system.

The developer platform will feature a new UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) registry server as well as a new version of the companys Java development tools known as Sun ONE Studio that has been souped up for Web services development, sources said.

In addition, the company will package its recently announced Portal Server–which also includes the Sun ONE Identity Server and integrates with the Sun ONE Integration Server–as part of the overall Sun ONE Developer Platform being announced next week.

“The Sun ONE product line is a confusing hodge-podge of products of different quality levels and market penetrations,” said Ron Schmelzer, an analyst with ZapThink LLC, an XML and Web services research firm based in Cambridge, Mass. “Sun needs to get their act together, as IBM has done quite well, and create a cohesive product–not marketing–vision for how developers can produce applications to run on Sun ONE.”

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