SAP had to move quickly last week to rebut reports that its plans
to embrace Java meant it had rejected Microsoft's .net architecture
as an option for its users, writes Antony Adshead.
The reports said that SAP was going to announce Java 2 Enterprise
Edition (J2EE) as its development platform for its enterprise
resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM)
applications, rather than .net, at this week's SAP TechEd
developers' conference in Los Angeles.
A spokesman from SAP reiterated the German software giant's
recently-acquired mantra of "openness" and said that those seeking
to use the company's enterprise tools would be able to do so in
either a .net or J2EE environment. However, the announcement from
such a widely deployed developer is being seen as a setback for
Microsoft.
Kevin Gibbs, chief executive of SpiritSoft, a supplier of
middleware for e-business integration, said, "Java use is
increasing. The latest North American Developer Survey from Evans
Data shows that since spring 2000, developers' average use of Java
has risen from 14% of the time to 20%. It makes sense for SAP to go
for J2EE because it means its customers can choose which
infrastructure supplier to use - just as in the past SAP customers
have been able to choose the database underneath SAP R/3, now they
can choose from a variety of J2EE infrastructure suppliers.
"Customers can then avoid supplier lock-in, leverage existing
infrastructure assets, and decrease the cost of ownership for their
ERP or CRM applications."