One initiative, code-named Orion and now officially called the Java Enterprise System, will include a broad collection of software to run on the powerful data processing computers called servers, Sun's specialty. The second, code-named Mad Hatter and now called Java Desktop System, is for running Linux, an office suite and other programs for desktop computers.
Sun is strong in some software niches, but overall the Santa Clara, California-based company is weak compared with competitors such as Microsoft, IBM and BEA Systems. With the new pricing and integration work, it hopes to change that.
According to Sun Microsystems Australia's Keith Garelja, the enterprise version is priced at AU$175 per employee per year, with "infinite right to use in Internet applications". It will be available early November.
The desktop version will cost AU$190 per desktop or for AU$95 per employee as an add-on to the Enterprise System. Availability is slated for end October.
Garelja, who heads regional sales for SunONE, was speaking to ZDNet Australia at the sidelines of an IT conference in Brisbane Tuesday.
He said telco giant Telstra, already a large Sun client, has adopted the flat fee structure for a three year-period. He declined to reveal specifics.
"Sun is being pretty radical with its pricing," said RedMonk analyst James Governor, predicting that the strategy will prove popular. "Enterprises are interested in pre-integrated bundles they don't have to put together or pay some services outfit a ton of money to integrate," he said, and they also are "interested in low price points for good-enough solutions."
However, it's going to be tough for Sun to make much headway against Microsoft in desktop computing, said Jupiter Media analyst Michael Gartenberg. He said Mad Hatter is more likely to be a replay of earlier failed Sun attempts to crack into the desktop computer market with the network computer and with Java workstations.
"For organisations, the question of interoperability with hardware and software is going to be an inhibitor," Gartenberg said, pointing out that most applications are developed for Windows; it's tough to assure flawless compatibility with Microsoft document file formats; hardware support arrives for Windows often long before other operating systems; and it's expensive to switch operating systems.
Sun's software plans are the centerpiece of the company's effort to grow beyond its roots as a hardware maker and re-invent itself as a purveyor of complete packages of hardware and software. In Sun's vision, these products will be tested to make sure each component works with the others, and new updates will be released each quarter.
Sun's holistic rhetoric, if it catches on with customers, could have the convenient side effect of demoting competitors such as software-only Microsoft or hardware-only Intel. It also would elevate IBM, which already is Sun's top competitor and which has a richer catalog of hardware and software to offer.
Asserting that a pre-integrated whole is greater than the sum of its parts, though, is a departure for the Unix operating system culture where Sun's roots lie. In that "open systems" realm, systems are assembled from "best-of-breed" components from different companies. Although Sun argues that its collection of components will comply with standards that let others' be substituted, it's clearly hoping that throwing in the entire package for one price will draw more customers.
"This is the end of 'open systems', for now," Governor said.
IBM has been headed this direction as well, however, Governor added, with server software that's improved greatly and that links the company's disparate hardware together. "IBM's Software Group is finally playing the kind of glue role needed by IBM. It's no longer the ugly kid that the server folks don't want to bring to the movies with them," Governor said.
