SAP Unveils Language-Agnostic Integration/Application Platform

The software vendor Thursday unveiled SAP NetWeaver, an integration and application platform designed to be "fully interoperable" with both Microsoft's .Net and IBM's J2EE-centric WebSphere products. But NetWeaver's software components also will compete directly with the various application servers, portals and other offerings within those two camps.

SAP said NetWeaver is language-agnostic and can run applications written in its ABAP language as well as Java and Visual Studio.

"Customers could care less if we program in C#, C++ or Java. They want to leverage their physical assets, applications and people. They don't want to have to retool again and again and start their skill sets from scratch," said Shai Agassi, executive board member at SAP, who took center stage at a New York press conference Thursday. "If it's good for customers, we'll be Swiss."

Earlier this week in New Orleans, SAP partners were given a sneak peak at the plans for NetWeaver.

SAP executives have slammed other software companies for not being so Web services-agnostic. For example, Chairman Hasso Plattner made some waves last year when he criticized Microsoft for its lack of Java support.

NetWeaver--which one industry observer characterized as a blob of software--includes a composite application framework for developing cross-functional processes. That component includes an object access layer so it can access a variety of structured and unstructured data. The product also includes an application server, an enterprise portal, collaboration software and an integration broker.

SAP executives said most of the NetWeaver software is shipping now with SAP applications, although master data management services won't be available until the third quarter. NetWeaver will be delivered with SAP's ERP and CRM applications as well as xApps plug-in applications, and can run in SAP environments at no extra charge. Running NetWeaver in other vendor environments will incur a charge, but SAP didn't specify what that would be.

Industry analysts said SAP had to make sure that customers know its products will work in the major Web services environments. "Historically, SAP's ERP integrated well with [SAP software]. But SAP usually made it incumbent for others to interoperate with them, and you used to have to be an ABAP programmer. That is not trivial," said Katherine Jones, an analyst at research firm Aberdeen Group.

Like other enterprise application vendors, SAP must find the right balance between building its application prowess and assuring a fruitful co-existence with other vendors' applications, analysts said. Siebel Systems is attempting the same tightrope walk with its Universal Application Network (UAN), which was launched with verbal support from IBM, SeeBeyond, Tibco and other vendors.