Ink Deal to Expand Support for IBM Software on Solaris 10
Renewing its commitment to collaboration on the Java platform, IBM and Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), founder and lead advocate for Java technology, today announced a 10-year extension to their Java technology agreement, designed to provide long-term stability to the almost 4.5 million developers in the worldwide Java community. The two companies also announced plans to deliver IBM middleware support for the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) on SPARC(R), x86 and x64 systems.
Under the Java agreement, which extends to 2016, IBM will continue to license and use Java technologies from Sun, including Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE), Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) and Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) and Java Card throughout its software products, including its middleware and web services portfolios. With this extension, IBM and Sun continue to promote and re-affirm the value and necessity of Java compatibility across platforms and demonstrate that both companies are committed to Java innovation. Sun and IBM will also continue to advance and enhance the development of Java technology through the collaborative Java Community Process (JCP) . In addition, IBM will also expand its role to become a channel partner in delivering Java compatible products for the embedded market to Sun’s Java technology licensees.
“The next wave of economic and social progress will spring from ever-growing communities participating on the web. Open technologies like Java and Solaris lower barriers to network participation and, together, form the world’s most advanced platform for Internet service development and deployment,” said Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. “Today’s agreement with IBM to extend their commitment to Java technology and to port IBM middleware to Solaris 10 for x86 is a major step forward. Now customers can deploy the applications they want on Solaris 10 and share in this vast opportunity.”
“This agreement helps assure that IBM customers can continue to benefit from Java,” said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Software Group. “In addition, for more than 10 years IBM has set the industry standard with a practice of porting our software to various platforms based on customer demand. We have been supporting Solaris as an operating system for many years. Recently, we have seen an increase in customer interest in running Solaris on Intel/AMD platforms. Based on that interest, we have decided to port our key middleware products to Solaris 10 on Intel/AMD systems.”
IBM Agrees to Port Middleware to Solaris 10
Additionally, in response to customer demand, IBM will broaden support of its DB2, Rational, Tivoli and WebSphere software to include the Solaris 10 OS on x64 AMD Opteron -based platforms. The companies each plan to make dedicated investments in engineering and testing focused on product interoperability, performance optimization and timely delivery. As a result, customers will be able to take advantage of key features of Solaris 10, including Dynamic Tracing, Solaris Containers and Predictive Self Healing on any architecture, while protecting their investment in IBM software. Today’s news also demonstrates IBM and Sun’s ongoing commitment to help customers gain control of data center complexity to improve utilization and help ensure availability of business-critical data, while leveraging the compelling benefits of the Solaris 10 OS on SPARC �, x86 and x64 platforms.
Customers Laud Porting Agreement
Customers from multiple industries have voiced support for IBM applications running on the Solaris 10 OS.
“As a user of both IBM and Sun technologies, Reuters is excited by this announcement. The availability of Tivoli software components across Sun’s entire Solaris product line will allow Reuters to retain the robustness of Solaris on lower-cost platforms while utilizing our existing skills in Solaris and Tivoli so reducing our total cost of ownership,” said Barry Woodward, global head of Infrastructure Development and Networks, Reuters.
“Solaris is a core component of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange infrastructure and we rely on a number of IBM middleware products to run our business,” said Richard Ward, executive director, Technical Services, Philadelphia Stock Exchange. “That Sun and IBM are coming together and porting key applications onto Solaris is a major step forward – one that will allow us to deliver increased value to customers.”
About IBM
IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
A singular vision — “The Network Is The Computer” — guides Sun in the development of technologies that power the world’s most important markets. Sun’s philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.
Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Java, JavaOne, Java Community Process, JCP, and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and in other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. AMD, Opteron, the AMD logo, the AMD Opteron logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices.