Sun Solution Providers: Java Will Prevail Despite Microsoft Ruling

"[The ruling is not a huge threat to Java," said Curt Stevenson, co-founder and vice president of business development for Boston-based solution provider Back Bay Technologies.

Stevenson said .Net has been on his company's radar screen for use in "certain small applications and if customers have an existing investment in Microsoft."

But he said Java still will be the platform of choice for mission-critical enterprise applications.

"At least from what we're seeing, the enterprise-class applications that have really high transaction and volume requirements, and applications that are high volume over the Web, will continue to be built in Java," Stevenson said.

Stevenson said he had not even been following the most recent incarnation of the antitrust case because he had lost interest in the proceedings.

Rob Mock, CEO and president of Dewpoint, a solution provider in Detroit, also said he had not been paying attention to the case.

But Mock did say the issue of Java interoperability with Microsoft products, which has been a key point in the case, has been "overshadowed" by the emergence of XML and Web services.

Since Web services are being used to bridge the gap between Microsoft-based technologies and Java, it is a moot point whether Microsoft supports the latest version of Java in its technology going forward, Mock said.

Stevenson agreed, though he said he has not seen "a whole lot of interoperability" between Java and .Net in enterprise solutions so far.

"I haven't seen it done a lot yet, but conceptually, it's not that hard," Stevenson said. "It's not completely farfetched to see Java Web services that can be accessed by .Net clients. It should be getting more interoperable."