JBoss Group Wants To Get The Word Out

Two recent moves by the company,licensing the J2EE brand from Sun Microsystems and launching a partner program to provide support and services around the JBoss application server,signal the group's determination to promote its app server as a viable option for enterprise deployments.

While a number of high-profile customers already use the JBoss product to deploy applications, including McKesson, Wells Fargo and Western Union, solution providers said the product remains most popular among developers.

"It's like the saying, 'You don't get fired for buying IBM,' " said Xandy Johnson, project manager at FGM, a solution provider based in Dulles, Va. Johnson said some IT decision-makers still believe that open-source software is less reliable than its commercial counterparts and prefer software backed by large vendors such as IBM or Microsoft.

But with the growing popularity of Linux, products such as JBoss are destined to become more successful.

"The market is favoring products that are useful and have a licensing model that allows them to be shared," said Anthony Awtrey, vice president at solution provider I.D.E.A.L. Technology, Orlando, Fla.

And those leanings are the primary drivers of the JBoss app server's success, not any moves that JBoss Group has made to promote the product, said Awtrey, adding that building a strong business model around JBoss should help.

The JBoss offering is currently enjoying success among corporate customers, but JBoss Group wants it to serve as a platform for even more mission-critical applications, said Bob Bickel, vice president of strategy and corporate development at JBoss Group, Atlanta.

In fact, the group, with the help of some generous partners, paid Sun "a truckload of money" for a J2EE-compatible license because it gives JBoss a little more credibility with executives at large organizations, Bickel said.

In addition, JBoss Group launched the JBoss Authorized Service Provider Program, which is aimed at building relationships with partners that already use the JBoss application server, Bickel said. The initiative is also geared at supporting future product deployments, he said.