D. H. Brown Associates, Inc. Study Concludes That Sun Linux with J2EE is Competitively Priced With Dell-Based Microsoft .NET Server Platforms

Business Wire, August 27, 2002

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

PORT CHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 27, 2002

Sun announced a new entry price point for a large vendor-supported J2EE platform with its Linux announcement earlier this month.

The D.H. Brown Associates, Inc. (DHBA) study found that Sun's new LX 50 Intel server with Sun Linux and the Sun ONE J2EE application server is competitive with Microsoft .NET on Dell hardware on a value-offered basis. Further, the J2EE platform offers the lowest acquisition cost with the open-source J2EE server - JBoss - on Linux. Microsoft .NET is a price leader when excluding open source J2EE on Linux and Sun Linux. The J2EE revenue leaders, BEA WebLogic Server and IBM WebSphere Advanced Edition, are considerably more expensive than Microsoft .NET on typical business logic tier mid-range four-way systems. However, they offer greater proven enterprise application server capability and more maturity than Microsoft .NET Server or Windows 2000 Server with the .NET platform. Acquisition prices converge at the higher end (eight-way systems) with the J2EE and .NET price differences less than 10%.

"J2EE has a perception of being much more expensive than Microsoft platforms." said Pierre Fricke, Executive VP of Web Application Infrastructure at D. H. Brown Associates, Inc. "However, Sun's Linux announcement changes that and levels the playing field for a large vendor-supported J2EE platform on an acquisition cost basis. Platform pricing is an important criterion for IT decision makers and independent software vendors though by no means the only one. Existing infrastructure and skill availability considerations usually take precedence over price."

D.H. Brown Associates, Inc. is widely recognized as a leading research and consulting firm providing strategic analysis, assessment and evaluation of technology products and market trends in the information industry.

D. H. Brown's report - "Optimizing J2EE and Microsoft .NET Decisions: Choose One or Use Both?" - describes the key strengths of each architecture, the tradeoffs of choosing either and offers decision guidance to IT and application developers. J2EE has the greatest strength for enterprise applications on the server due to its rich capability, platform choice and maturity. J2EE is supported by several enterprise application frameworks - IBM e-Business Software Strategy, Oracle9i, Sun ONE, and BEA WebLogic Platform - that are significantly more mature than Microsoft .NET for high-value enterprise applications. Microsoft .NET shows the greatest strength in developing and deploying simpler solutions for smaller businesses and functional units. This is supported by early evidence of developer productivity with Visual Studio .NET, choice of language, and integration with Windows. Further, Microsoft .NET will offer significant differentiation for building rich user experiences and enabling user productivity. Both platforms will focus on web services for business integration and interoperability enabling mixed deployments for maximum business benefit.

A summary of the report may be found on DHBA's website at http://www.dhbrown.com/dhbrown/appserv.cfm. For further information, please e-mail Pierre Fricke at pfricke@dhbrown.com.

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