BEA, HP Strengthen Alliance

BEA Systems Hewlett-Packard

The move is part of BEA's continued efforts to ward off competition in the J2EE middleware market from IBM and Sun Microsystems, which are increasingly bundling Java software with their own server operating environments.

HP now will offer a free, six-month trial version of BEA's J2EE app server, BEA WebLogic Server, on each of its server operating systems, beginning with HP UX later this month, said Don Jenkins, vice president of marketing for operating environment software at HP.

Other OSes that will carry the trial version are Windows, Linux, Tru64 Unix, OpenVMS and NonStop Kernel, Jenkins said. He did not say exactly when those would be available.

Palo Alto-based HP also is offering a new product under its OpenView network management suite--OpenView Transaction Analyzer--that specifically tracks, traces and troubleshoots across BEA WebLogic middleware, Jenkins said.

OpenView Transaction Analyzer supports both the J2EE and Microsoft DNA environments, he said.

Gamiel Gran, vice president of strategic alliances for BEA, said the new deal between HP and BEA is to stave off competition from IBM rather than Sun, since Sun does not have nearly the market share in the J2EE app-server space that BEA and IBM have.

But last week, Sun Chairman, CEO and President Scott McNealy hinted at plans to tie Sun ONE J2EE middleware ever more closely with its Solaris and Linux operating systems running on Sun hardware products.

Since BEA WebLogic has traditionally been deployed mainly on Solaris, this will be a "problem" for BEA, McNealy said.

Indeed, BEA and HP have been strengthening ties considerably in the last year as BEA, without a server line of its own, seeks a hardware partner without a middleware strategy. Since HP dropped its J2EE middleware line, Bluestone, in early summer, the vendor is an obvious choice.

In turn, the deal gives HP Java software to bundle on server OSes like competitors IBM and Sun.

In June, HP and BEA unveiled a deal to bundle BEA's WebLogic middleware, including its WebLogic Platform 7.0--a unified product comprised of BEA's app server, portal, integration and the WebLogic Workshop development environment--with all of HP's hardware operating systems.

BEA also will make HP its preferred consulting services provider for BEA WebLogic on HP servers, and HP's professional services organization formed a dedicated practice around BEA middleware products, Jenkins said.

But a source told CRN Friday that BEA WebLogic is not the only J2EE middleware HP will bundle on its systems. HP and IBM are finalizing a relationship to bundle IBM's DB2 database and WebSphere middleware on HP server operating systems, according to a source familiar with the plans.

The HP-IBM deal would be similar to HP's deal with BEA in that it would involve co-selling, marketing and development of both companies' products, the source said.