JavaStation targets administration costs

Big business focus of Sun's smaller network computer solution

by Geof Wheelwright

While Microsoft, Intel and Oracle have been slugging it out over the past few months about who will win the looming battle of the network computer versus the personal computer, there has been one company able to chuckle about it all and watch the money roll in.

That company is Sun Microsystems, whose Java technology is behind every major World Wide Web-based computing effort currently under way, whether it is Microsoft's and Netscape's Web browsers or Oracle's Network Computer. Sun, however, wants a lot more.

In order to get it, the company announced this past fall its own plans to jump into the low-end hardware market with a network computer-style device of its own that could present strong competition to Oracle and the recently announced Microsoft/Intel NetPC initiative.

Enter the JavaStation

Known as the JavaStation family of network computers, Sun says these machines represent the first "pure" Java network computers specifically optimized to run Java applications, and offer "powerful access to enterprise intranet data, applications and systems with zero administration."

Sun is pitching these JavaStation devices to Fortune 1,000 (the top 1,000 money-earning firms determined by Fortune magazine) chief executive, financial and information officers as a powerful weapon to "transform the economics of running a large enterprise" by shifting the computer's administration and support of data and applications from the desktop to the network.

"Many top companies are concerned about the enormous cost and complexity of maintaining these giant networks of 10,000 or more PCs, each carrying a total cost of ownership of about $12,000 per year," explains Gene Banman, Sun's vice-president and general manager of the desktop systems group. "Because it allows developers to write applications once that will run on any platform, regardless of operating system, the Java environment gives Fortune 1000 CIOs [chief information officers] a way out of this financial and organizational quagmire."

Sun is making big claims that JavaStations will dramatically reduce "the burden of administration, speed application development and deployment and improve security," all of which sound extremely similar to the claims made by Microsoft, Intel and Oracle for their implementations of the corporate network computer idea.

What's in a JavaStation?

The JavaStation environment features the JavaOS and a set of products that Sun calls HotJava Views. The latter includes desktop productivity applets and the HotJava browser. Instead of using any existing operating system (including its own Solstice products), Sun has instead developed JavaOS as a new operating system specifically to run Java programs from the network on a desktop system. Written in Java, Sun says it includes the Java Virtual Machine and class libraries plus the necessary software, and takes only 3.5 MB to efficiently run applications.

Although Sun's main push with the JavaStation is to have it run existing off-the-shelf and custom Java applications, the company says it has been designed so that it can also run host "legacy" terminal environments-such as SNA 3270, 5250, VT220-and therefore take over directly from existing "dumb terminals."

The company is also at pains to say that JavaStations can access Microsoft PC applications from an NT server, and even run Windows applications by utilizing an Insignia Solutions' open-systems-based applet called NTRIGUE. While it pales in comparison to the number of companies developing Windows 95 applications, Sun estimates more than 450 independent software vendor (ISV) applications are already developing Java enterprise applications. It says that several top integrators are already exporting the benefits of Java technology to large corporations.

Despite all of this, there's not much in a JavaStation. It has no hard drive, no slots, no floppy, no CD-ROM player and thus, according to the company, no jumpers to set and no moving parts to worry about. Yet, Sun says, it contains everything Fortune 1000 companies will need to link the desktop with the Internet or corporate network. In this case, that means using a microSPARCII chip; memory that scales from 8 MB to 64 MB; and built-in standard 10BaseT networking, which Sun promises to expand to 100 BaseT by mid-1997. The JavaStation includes either a 14-inch or 17-inch XVGA color monitor. In mid-1997, Sun says, it will add point-to-point protocol (PPP) and Flash RAM features.

Sun promises that JavaStation will be easy to install, and, if one breaks down, it can be swapped for another system without losing any applications or saved user files, or experiencing significant down-time. For these reasons, Sun says it has already won some corporate orders including the First Union National Bank Capital Markets Technology division (which is apparently evaluating JavaStations for operational areas to reduce total cost of ownership per seat and to speed deployment of its custom applications).

Sun had scheduled to begin shipping the entry JavaStation package with 8 MB of main memory for US$742 in December. A fully configured package, which includes 8 MB of main memory, a keyboard, mouse and a 14-inch color monitor, will cost US$995. Sun will also ship JavaStation with 16 MB of main memory, a mouse, keyboard and a 17-inch color monitor for US$1,565.

Software support

At the event to launch JavaStation, Sun also boasted that 65 independent software development companies have unveiled 85 new products and applications designed to run on Sun's Java Enterprise computing platform. Thirty-five companies demonstrated their software at the launch event, including big names like: The BAAN Co.; IBM; Computer Associates; Informix; Oracle; SAP AG; SAS Institute; and Sybase Inc./Powersoft.

Sun says these Java-enabled software solutions address "every facet of the corporate enterprise," from middleware and development tools to personal productivity applications, such as word processing and a.

The company estimates that some 450 ISVs are currently developing Java enterprise applications, which can be written once and will run on any platform that offers a Java browser. The platform independence of Java technology allows ISVs to develop products that zero in on the most pressing issue facing CIOs which, according to Sun, is how to manage the spiraling cost and administrative complexity of heterogeneous computing environments.

Analysts also suggest that is why so many ISVs are getting involved in Java applications development. "Java is exciting to ISVs because of platform independence," says Tracy Corbo, senior analyst, International Data Corp. "Up to this point, interoperability has been a major obstacle in the timely deployment of business-critical applications. Java technology's platform independence opens the door to a whole new approach to application development with the Internet as the backbone for creating and deploying intranet and extranet applications."

Sun, meanwhile, is crowing about just how fast all this has happened. "It's amazing that Java technology was only introduced about 18 months ago, and already it's being seen as the next great wave in computing," says Mark Tolliver, vice-president of market development for Sun Microsystems Computer Company. "All of the major operating systems will have it and hundreds of ISVs are either adapting their best-selling products to the Java enterprise platform or they're creating new mission-critical business applications for it. Java has become ubiquitous at a record clip, and we'll continue assisting independent software developers to keep the momentum going."

In recognition of the fact that it does need to find a way to certify Java applications and support their growth, Sun, in August 1996, opened testing centres on the east and west coasts of the United States. The company says this move is part of an effort to closely tie ISV support with engineering and market development resources.

Sun is also making an effort to include the other big Internet pioneer in all of this by announcing that Navio Navigator, the Internet browser for non-PC and consumer devices produced by Netscape spin-off Navio Communications, will be available on JavaStation systems. This means that in addition to running the Navigator on personal computers, the Navigator browser will have a home on the JavaStation and network computers for the enterprise. This gives Sun another checklist item to match PCs with Internet connections.

"This announcement means that Sun's customers can have the Navio Navigator browser on Java network computers, and this relationship creates an industry standard in the new category of network computers for consumer and business devices," says Navio president and chief executive officer Wei Yen.

What prospects for success?

On the face of it, the JavaStation looks like good news for users. By being a fairly self-contained beast that could well encourage you to use and buy software over the Internet, the JavaStation looks initially like an attractive proposition.

The truth of the matter, however, could be quite different. No one yet knows how Java software is likely to be sold. The rental models that some have suggested may end up being more expensive than a "once and for all" licence-fee payment.

In addition, you can be sure that enterprising third parties will find ways of adding to the JavaStation those things that Sun seems so sure it doesn't need (like floppy and CD-ROM drives, and so on). You would end up being tempted to buy them.

Probably the biggest impact all of this will have is that it adds further momentum to the whole network computer effort and further ensures that this idea is not a "flash in the pan."

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TCP Online February 1997 Issue