Hewlett-Packard will bundle a basic edition of Oracle's application
server software with systems running its HP-UX operating system, as
part of a joint marketing and development effort.
HP said the deal - to be announced later today at OracleWorld -
furthers its strategy of partnering with the biggest software
vendors to make it easier for its customers to use the middleware
products of their choice.
Having scrapped the development of its own application server
earlier this year, HP announced a similar bundling deal in
September with BEA Systems.
"Customers increasingly are saying they want to buy solutions
instead of individual products," said HP systems software
vice-president Don Jenkins. He added that the Oracle deal, which
involves jointly testing the products for compatibility, furthers
the company's strategy to meet that need.
From next month, customers who buy an HP-UX server based on HP's
PA-RISC or Intel's Itanium processor will receive a CD with an
entry-level edition of the Oracle9i Application server. Customers
who buy HP Proliant servers running Microsoft Windows and Linux
also will be eligible for the free product through a download from
the Web.
Oracle hoped the three-year deal would help it to boost its share
of the application server market, in which it trails some distance
behind market leaders BEA and IBM, according to analysts.
Its strategy with the HP deal is to seed the market for its
application server in the hope that customers will pay to upgrade
to a more advanced version and buy additional middleware and
services from Oracle, such as its software for building portals,
said Thomas Kurian, Oracle senior vice-president for application
server technology.
Kurian said that this afternoon he will also outline plans for the
next version of Oracle's application server, version 9.0.4, due in
the first half of 2003. It will include, among other things, new
technologies for integrating applications and for managing user
identities on networks.
The bundled offering with HP includes a full-use licence for a
"special" version of the Oracle 9i Application Server, which will
be sufficient for customers to deploy certain applications in a
production environment, Kurian said. Among other components it
includes the Oracle9i Application Server Containers for J2EE and a
Web Server, he said.
The bundling deal announced last month between HP and BEA is
similar in many respects. That offer includes a six-month trial
version of BEA's software; customers can deploy the product in a
production environment for up to 20 concurrent users, and after six
months they must decide whether or not to purchase the product, BEA
said at the time.
There is no time limit on the Oracle licence being offered, Kurian
noted.
Customers will receive free support calls for up to five incidents
from Oracle. The companies will also offer joint technical support
for customers who buy support contracts, and they plan to train
"hundreds" of HP sales representatives and technical consultants on
the Oracle product.
Oracle will become a "strategic application server partner" for HP
- an honour also bestowed on BEA. - and will work to integrate HP
OpenView with its own management suite, Oracle Enterprise Manager.
For its part, Oracle will promote HP's servers to its software
customers.
The deals with Oracle and BEA are not exclusive, which means HP
could, potentially, add IBM's WebSphere product to its list of
application server partners.
Positioning itself as a "platform neutral" vendor, HP has said that
it will also partner with Microsoft for customers who prefer to use
.net software. to run their applications. Oracle, BEA and IBM all
make Java software.
The moves are part of a broader trend towards bundling in the
application server market. Sun has started offering a free version
of its Sun ONE application server with its Solaris 9 operating
system.