Web Services Key To New SCO, Sun Unix Platform

Linux

SCO disclosed last week its SCOx Web services framework, which will enable developers and partners to migrate Unix applications to a Web services-enabled platform that supports XML/SOAP as well as Microsoft .Net and J2EE applications. The framework is due to ship in the late summer.

SCO also plans to debut this summer a next-generation Unix platform with a new System V Release 6 (SVR6) Web API and a series of integrated SCOx components that will run on OpenServer, UnixWare and Linux, said SCO CEO Darl McBride.

Features will include the new Web API, Web services tools, a WebFace tool for browser-enabling applications, SCObiz e-commerce components and the SCO Dashboard for portal development, according to documents viewed by CRN.

"We're advancing the next-generation platform, and SVR6 is the advanced [Unix] code base," said Jeff Hunsaker, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at SCO. "The SCOx components include Web services, security layer, development tools and associated APIs."

Meanwhile, Graham Lovell, vice president of marketing for operating systems at Sun, told CRN that Sun will ship a version of Solaris 9 with its Orion stack in early fall. Project Orion, designed for Solaris and Linux, will offer a common Java runtime environment that integrates the Sun ONE Web services infrastructure.

SCO and Sun solution providers said the initiatives could stall some Linux migrations. "Unix growth may stumble with not a lot of major new installs, but it will be around for a long time," said Ron Herman, president of Blue Chip Computer Systems & Consulting Services, Los Angeles. "The more middleware and applications that come to Unix,like the new SCO project,the better off the consumer will be."