First-Pass Look at the Market Positioning of Some of the Application Server Competitors

Each of these vendors will be examined in considerably more detail in Chapter 10 but at this juncture it is important to briefly illustrate how these products have been optimized.

In the case of IBM, the company offers its WebSphere suite of application development tools and utilities as well as other value-added software on multiple operating environments (Linux, OS/400, Windows, and others), and WebSphere can be run on PowerPC- or Intel-based systems. In the case of Sun, Sun ONE can be run on Sun's UNIX (Solaris) on Sun's UltraSparc microprocessor architecture. And with HP, NetAction has been designed to serve both HP/UX and Windows environments.

Notice each of these vendor's strategies. Each sells an integrated suite of application development environment tools and utilities that ultimately serve to drive the sale of that vendor's hardware platform(s). And all of these vendors have professional services organizations, so each also has an opportunity to garner service revenue by selling turnkey application server environments. In short: selling an application development environment leads directly to the sale of related hardware and to the potential sale of professional services.

Contrast this approach with the approach taken by BEA and Microsoft vendors that sell application server environments but do not focus on selling hardware. BEA's WebLogic can run across multiple systems platforms, but BEA does not seek to garner hardware revenue. Likewise, Microsoft's .NET products can be sold on various vendors' Intel-based servers, but Microsoft does not concentrate on making revenue from the sale of systems hardware (they leave that to their partners like Compaq, Dell, HP, and others). Notice that the strategy for these application server environment creators has to do with selling licenses, not proliferating hardware sales.

In the case of BEA the company makes substantial revenue by providing professional services related to applications design and deployment using BEA products. Microsoft, on the other hand, has a several thousand professional services personnel but focuses on specialty application development using advanced Microsoft technologies. This company makes a concerted effort to let its business partners garner professional services revenue. So, for some software makers professional services may be a strategically important revenue stream, while others leave professional services revenue for their business partners.

Each strategy can be used successfully, but it is important for you to understand your potential business partner's motivations before committing to a long-term application server and development environment relationship.



Web Services Explained. Solutions and Applications for the Real World
Web Services Explained, Solutions and Applications for the Real World
ISBN: 0130479632
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 115
Authors: Joe Clabby

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