Tarantella Inks Portal Deal With Sun's iPlanet Unit

Under a joint marketing and development deal expected to be disclosed this week, Tarantella's Enterprise 3 application delivery platform will be integrated with Sun Microsystems' iPlanet Portal server, said Guy Churchward, director of global strategy at Tarantella, Santa Cruz. The integration will allow solution providers to offer Web-based access to mainframes, Windows, AS/400, Java, Linux and Unix apps without having to rewrite them for Web delivery, he said.

One factor hindering portal sales has been a lack of support for legacy applications, said Werner Schmidt, chief knowledge officer at Applied Computer Solutions, a Huntington Beach, Calif.-based solution provider that works with Tarantella and Sun.

"Now we can open portals to customers who didn't consider them before because they were waiting until they could do it the right way and Web-enable everything," Schmidt said.

The combination of Tarantella's technology and Sun's portal server eliminates the need to integrate the applications independently, said Robert Perry, senior analyst at The Yankee Group. "You could get to the data, but you couldn't get to it quite as easily [without Tarantella," he said.

Tarantella is discussing similar pacts with IBM, BEA Systems, Epicentric and Plumtree Software, Churchward said.

However, one solution provider questioned what benefits a partnership with Tarantella would bring to IBM and BEA.

"They have the tools already there [to integrate legacy apps," said Sandy Williamson, CEO of CapTech Ventures, Richmond, Va.