Hewlett Packard is undercutting its partner, BEA, and challenging
rival IBM to reduce its pricing by announcing the free distribution
of its application server platform.
HP Application Server 8.0, which was launched this week, will still
require payment of an annual fee, but this is likely to be
per-server and not on the higher per-CPU pricing favoured by
rivals.
Steve Glagow, HP Netaction marketing manager, said: "Final pricing
for service and support for our application server is still under
discussion, but it's going to be around $5000 (£3,430) per
year."
HP's move makes its application server significantly cheaper than
IBM's Websphere - which costs between $7,000-$35,000 per CPU - and
BEA, which charges around $10,000 per CPU.
HP Application Server 8.0 is a J2EE-based platform that will run
any Java-compliant application over the Internet. It is based on
the Bluestone Application Server that HP inherited, with its
acquisition of Bluestone Software last year.
Analyst firm Gartner has predicted that the application server will
become a commodity product. HP's decision to essentially give away
its application server confirms this view.
Last month, Gartner gave HP just 4% market share, compared to BEA's
41% and IBM's 31% of the application server market.
HP's announcement is likely to anger BEA, which has partnered HP in
areas such as interoperability while working with large joint
customers such as General Motors and Samsung.
Glagow refused to speculate whether HP's price-cutting would
undermine BEA's Weblogic application server. "We believe the
customer is king. If they want to use BEA instead then we're
happy." he said "As long as they [BEA] keep to recognised
standards. If they don't, then it will be tough on them."
HP will not be reducing the price of its application server
development tools. The company would not clarify if subsequent
application server releases would also be freely distributed.