Thursday, August 05, 2004

Jonathan Schwartz's Weblog: IBM's Pickling Continues

Jonathan Schwartz's Weblog: IBM's Pickling Continues "I'm heartened to note that SuSe has added in an application server to their linux distribution - increasing the pressure on IBM to defend its increasingly curious linux strategy. Why bother with WebSphere when you get an app server in Solaris, Red Hat, Windows, and SuSe? Great question for IBM customers and ISV's to ask before they re-up on WebSphere - you've never had stronger pricing leverage.
I particularly enjoy the jockeying between the companies on the definition of "low-end" vs. "high-end" application servers. I wonder whose definition will matter most when their sales reps are trying to close a big app server deal."

(Continues with the requisite patent FUD etc.)

Perplexing, considering the source. Gee, do you suppose good-enough/"low-end" open source also applies in domains such as directory and messaging? And what does that mean for Sun's server software suite?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sun's already there - they shipped the whole complete suite for $100/employee - which is way, way lower than any of the supported open source implementations. they've been all over the "good enough" message for a very long time...

Anonymous said...

And having been sued by IBM, I'm afraid I agree with Schwartz...

pbokelly said...

We'll see if Sun can stay there -- offering service/support with a relatively low per-seat pricing model -- as the "good enough" curve continues to rise and Sun gets squeezed between relentless server suite players (including IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle) and free software (!= "commercial open source" with dual licenses etc.). Despite Schwartz's weird and personal attacks on IBM, Sun is more strategically challenged than IBM is at this point.