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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Special Features:
OPEN SOURCE AND JBOSS: A THREAT TO
TOP VENDORS?
Software makers, citing its open source foundations, are adopting Linux in
order to change their computational strategies and applications. However, few
have stood up as open source advocates when it threatens their business
ventures.
In addition, middleware leaders like IBM and BEA Systems have made no
comments
regarding 30-employee rival JBoss, which has been granted $10 million in
venture capital from Matrix Partners and Accel Partners.
Though JBoss's software does not include all the features that IBM's
WebSphere
or BEA's Web-Logic does, it has the companies worried over its open source
strategy for corporate customers. This new funding could make JBoss a serious
contender in the market alongside IBM and BEA.
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With the new funding, JBoss plans to hire additional developers and senior
execs to observe finance, business development, and marketing operations.
And though the firm won't provide a date, spokesmen say that an initial
public
offering is a definite possibility for the near future.
Middleware serves as a medium between multiple hardware and applications
throughout a corporate network. Application servers, a type of middleware,
shift information among databases and applications.
Though it competes in a $1.1 billion segment of the application server
market,
JBoss has yet to provide specific numbers regarding profits.
Yet JBoss firmly believes that its shortcomings will be overshadowed by the
open source model that it provides, and that this will do damage to the big
businesses that oppose it.
Volunteer programmers worldwide could vastly improve open-source software
by
being able to recognize underlying code. This would give programmers the
ability to make software suitable for corporations' specific needs.
Because JBoss is run by a for-profit entity, it differs greatly from
Linux.
While working for Sun in 1999, Marc Fleury wrote the software in his spare
time. After gaining fans, Fleury started JBoss with the intent to provide free
software, while offering other services to create a profit.
For example, even though anyone can copy or use the JBoss software, the
company keeps control of the software's evolution and development.
JBoss's "professional open source" model allows users to get help from
JBoss
if problems arise.
Apple bundles JBoss with its server products and other companies like HP
and
Unisys, may soon be following suit. Yet dozens of companies, like CAI, Mercury
Interactive, BMC, and Sterling Commerce include JBoss middleware already.
And even though the software is free, some firms choose to pay JBoss in
order
to be featured on the website or use its customer support.
JBoss may very well make big vendors nervous. For instance, BEA shares
dropped
10 percent in one week last year due to a report that suggested General
Electric
would replace BEA WebLogic with JBoss. BEA shares are up to over 13 now from
less than 10.
IBM declined to comment.
Some analysts are saying that JBoss would have been a real threat three
years
ago, but that IBM and BEA have improved greatly in recent years.
Others are arguing that JBoss won't actually save businesses money because
the
app server is a small part of a company's tech spending. Actual cost lies in
running and maintaining applications and JBoss does not offer products to
reduce this cost.
JBoss has encountered other problems as well. Seven of its developers quit
last summer to form a rival consulting firm, making a significant dent in the
small company's staff.
In addition, JBoss created some controversy last year when chief architect
Bill Burke suggested that JBoss fans cast multiple votes in a "readers choice"
poll by Java Developers Journal.
On top of this, JBoss was involved in a legal battle with Sun regarding
their
compliance with Java standards. Though JBoss refused to pay the large license
fee Sun requires for certification, the two companies eventually settled and
JBoss is, in fact, becoming certified. JBoss believes the settlement will ease
user transition from WebSphere and Web-Logic to open source software.
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