Solar Flair

Sun tries for shortlist of strategic business solution providers with rebranded apps

A packaged vs. best-of-breed software strategy has been a subject for debate for some time, with proponents all too eager to list the merits of each. But Sun Microsystems, like many companies, is hoping to offer the best of both worlds by being both open to other vendors' offerings while still offering a complete solution.

Sun announced in April 2002 that it was rebranding several product lines, such as iPlanet, Forte, and Chili!Soft, under the Sun Open Net Environment (ONE) umbrella. (Sun ONE is Sun's framework for developing and delivering services on demand.)

"This rebranding is the culmination of what we've been successfully doing for the last several years — delivering best-of-breed and integrated product solutions for the enterprise," says Marge Breya, vice president, Sun ONE. (More information on Sun ONE is available at www.sun.com/sunone.)

Establishing a single software brand under Sun ONE is a move in the right direction according to a Gartner brief: A unified brand clarifies Sun's software strategy — demonstrating that it's "not just a hardware strategy with software pieces bolted on," provides a foundation for its Sun One initiative, and focuses Sun's sales message. ("Sun's Unified Brand Will Help Its Software Strategy," April 17, 2002.)

But Gartner warns that while rebranding Forte as Sun ONE Studio, for example, "establishes a clear vision of how [Sun's] tools can support its overall e-business platform," it will come "at the expense of its appeal to the best-of-breed Java development community."

Wes Wasson, vice president of iPlanet product marketing, responded to Gartner, saying, "Rebranding the Forte tools as Sun ONE Studio does indeed signal Sun's desire to highlight its integration with the rest of the Sun ONE product line. While Sun ONE will always support other tools, and the Sun ONE Studio will continue to work well with non-Sun deployment environments, we believe we can give Sun ONE developers unparalleled productivity when they use our tools and deployment platform together.

"We do not, however, believe this focus on superior integration will come at the expense of appealing to the best-of-breed Java development community. To begin with, Sun remains committed to the broader Java community and will continue to test our tools against non-Sun products. More important, however, is the open-source, snap-in design of our Sun ONE Studio framework," Wasson adds.

"The beauty of the Sun ONE Studio model is that it based on the highly popular NetBeans open-source framework. Thousands of developers from around the world are already contributing development modules that snap into the NetBeans framework, many of which are designed with other best-of-breed point products in mind. Because our commercial tools offering is built on the open-source NetBeans framework, Sun ONE Studio developers are assured that they will always have an expansive choice of development modules to choose from, not just those provided directly by Sun," says Wasson.

Sanjay Sarathy, director of product marketing at Sun, states, "I don't think it's an either/or value proposition. We believe we have the best-of breed solution in a number of areas, but rebranding allows us to go to market with a consistent vision. The focus is on a unified brand, and the reputation we have won't change as a result."

Gartner also predicts that Sun must walk a fine line between sending the message that Sun ONE can integrate with other vendors' offering and yet still represent just Sun's own software and vision. Sun must put "all its efforts behind Sun ONE Application Server," formerly iPlanet Application Server, if it wants to close the gap with leading competitors such as BEA Systems Inc. and IBM and keep ahead of Oracle's offering.

Wasson agrees, "Rebranding the iPlanet Application Server under the 'Sun ONE' banner sends a clear message to the industry that Sun is 100 percent committed to winning in the commercial application server business. Because of their longstanding commitment to open standards, partners like BEA and Oracle will continue to be very strong business allies with Sun on many fronts. But that does not mean we won't compete to win in areas like the application server. Sun ONE already has number one market share position in critical areas such as directory and portal servers."

Sarathy points to the millions of dollars being spent in the rebranding advertising campaign to drive adoption within Sun's key constituencies as indicative of Sun's strong commitment to Sun ONE offerings. At the same time, Sarathy adds, "Our approach has always been that we'll be more appealing if we design an architecture that is open rather than proprietary. It broadens the appeal of the Sun ONE platform."

With a 40 percent decline in revenue in the first half of FY 2002, Sun needs to revitalize its software brands, such as IPlanet, which has fallen behind in innovation and product releases, according to Forrester Research analyst Chris Dial. Sun's sales force needs to move software, which has high profit returns.

Sun, like Hewlett-Packard and IBM, is also seeing software infrastructure as a way of selling its hardware, which still comprises the majority of it revenue. ("IPlanet, Forte Dropped For Sun ONE Branding," InformationWeek.com, April 15, 2002).

Sun is struggling now, but is has shown in the past that it can turn things around. Walking the tightrope between best-of-breed and packaged messages just may lead the company to a strong recovery.

— Michelle M. Young

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