Part of JES Stack to be out in the open

BANGLAORE: After announcing to open source its popular Unix operating system Solaris, officials from Sun Microsystems confirmed that the company has plans to open source some parts of its Java Enterprise System (JES) stack. Sun's JES stack includes more than 10 individual software and exactly what will come out in the open is not yet made clear. Said an online report.

Industry experts have evinced mixed reactions to the announcement. According to Marc Maselli, president Back Bay Technologies, this could be Sun's game-plan to put competitors like BEA Systems out of business who don't have a significant hardware business to back up their Java software portfolio. Said the report.

Maselli is also of the view that there could be financial reasons behind the move. Probably, the software has not taken off in the market as was anticipated by Sun and hence going the open source way could be more cost-effective, he added.

Observers are of the view that Sun's J2EE application server would be a likely starting point of open sourcing the JES stack. Sun may even choose to open source its identity management software.

The company's plan to open source only parts of JES stack is to judge the industry reaction and then adopt a suitable strategy.