Sun To Ship JES For Windows, HP-UX Next Year

Sun also introduced a promotion around JES, which includes a host of Java software, that offers a free server and technical support to customers as part of its continued push to distribute its software stack.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based vendor's plan to ship JES on operating systems other than Linux and Solaris--the two platforms for which the software stack is now available--surfaced last December. In 2005, Sun plans to support JES for servers running HP-UX, Hewlett-Packard's version of Unix, as well as on x86-based hardware running Windows, according to a company statement.

Through the new JES promotion, which runs through Dec. 31, customers with more than 100 employees that buy JES also will receive a Sun Fire V20z AMD Opteron server valued at nearly $4,000, Solaris 9 and one year of SunSpectrum Silver support, all bundled into the regular $100 per-employee, per-year price of JES.

Sun's plan to expand JES to other OSes should give the channel more options to sell the software stack, Dana Gardner, senior analyst at research firm the Yankee Group, said in a statement. "The likely effect is that, as the cost-benefit analysis becomes clear, enterprise buyers will pull this up through the channel," Gardner said.

Sun's creative pricing models for software and hardware are likely to continue as the company tries to break out of its traditional mold of selling high-end and midrange servers mainly to the enterprise.

The company also offers JES free to companies with fewer than 100 employees that purchase a support package, an earlier promotion that now has been extended through the end of the year. Sun has directed that sales of JES to such companies must go through the channel.