In recent weeks, both Oracle and Serena took the first steps to axing intranet solutions (see Intranet portal solutions die, evolve & move to Web 2.0 ). Not to be outdone by the trend, Sun Microsystems is saying good-bye to Sun Portal.
Janus Boye, Contributing Analyst for
“This is pretty big news because Sun already has a portal offering, which now will go away,” writes Boye on the CMSWatch.com site (Sun Portal Server rides into the sunset in favor of Liferay). “The current release of Sun Portal is 7.2 and customers should not expect a Sun Portal Server 8.”
Sun will continue to sell Sun Portal, and support it (for the time being), but Sun customers should make other long-term plans.
Intranet 2.0 focus
Sun will now invest its portal energies into the Liferay Portal which includes built-in Web 2.0 / Intranet 2.0 tools including a secure interface to Facebook, and support for Google Gadgets. “Sun's participation in Liferay's community will result in enhanced development of enterprise Web 2.0 features and optimized performance for Liferay Portal in combination with Sun's family of products,” says the joint release from Sun and Liferay.
“It indicates that Sun is taking a serious, pragmatic approach to open-source software,” says Garter (Sun and Liferay Plan to Brighten Open-Source Enterprise Portals). “Despite having an offering that competes with Liferay, Sun has identified an emerging trend and has acted on its assessment of the company's growth, value to Sun's ecosystem, speed of enhancements and track record.”
“Really what will happen is that Sun will take a snapshot of the Liferay Portal code and use this to create a Sun-branded portal with added functionality (expected later this year)”, says Boye, author of the
The focus though is clear: Intranet 2.0. Liferay Portal is more advanced in its intranet 2.0 tools than many portal solutions, and this is a big selling feature for many intranet consultants and managers.
Though both Sun and Liferay deny this is the first step towards a Sun acquisition of the latter, that is a standard refrain in an announcement such as this; it’s also the standard boilerplate comment in the first step of an acquisition that is still being considered, but not yet formalized.
“The partnership is not without challenges, some of which could be resolved by an outright acquisition,” adds Garter. “Currently, there are two products with different code bases and licensing models. These are being merged at the technology level (the JSR 286 portlet container from Sun, for example, and the social networking features from Liferay), but each will, for the moment, maintain its distinct market identity.”
Did you notice the use of language? “...each will, for the moment, maintain its distinct market identity.”
Why should you be interested?
If you’ve been thinking about Sun Portal, I strongly suggest you reconsider. If you’re a Java (J2EE) shop (instead of .
If you want an outside hand with your portal initiative then feel free to call me at
READ MORE:
Pros and cons for enterprise intranet portals
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