Sun's acquisition of SeeBeyond will allow the company to
offer application integration technology to users of Java. But
questions remain over how SeeBeyond will fit into Sun's Java
Business Integration strategy.
Ovum analyst Gary Barnett said, "In terms of corporate viability,
SeeBeyond is more secure under Sun." But going forward he said
users would need to see how Sun integrates the SeeBeyond products
into its Java Business Integration strategy.
Gartner warned that Sun did not successfully advance the products
it acquired from Forte and Netscape in 1999. However, the analyst
firm said users could now consider Sun a potential integration
partner, pending successful adoption of SeeBeyond by Sun's
engineering, sales and support organisations.
Keeping SeeBeyond's 2,000 customers loyal will be a challenge,
according to Gartner, since Sun will almost certainly "sunset"
parts of SeeBeyond's product line, including its portal and Ican
(Integrated Composite Application Network) versions of eGate.
To make this acquisition a success, Gartner said, Sun must show a
lasting commitment to SeeBeyond users and use SeeBeyond's vision
strategically. This would mean giving Ican a first-class position
in Sun's service oriented architecture strategy, .
Massimo Pezzino, vice-president of research at Gartner, said, "The
acquisition is an attempt by Sun to offer application integration
which builds on its Java Enterprise Server technology."
But SeeBeyond's flagship software, Ican 5.0, offers components,
such as an application server and portal software, that clash with
Java Enterprise Server.
Pezzino was concerned that Sun may adapt Ican to fit into its Java
Business Integration strategy, which could destabilise Ican and
affect backwards compatibility. He noted that most SeeBeyond users
were running older versions of the company's integration products,
such as Datagate and eGate.
SeeBeyond's eGate Integrator 5 is hosted on a Java 2 Enterprise
Edition 1.4 reference implementation, and its internal architecture
aligns with Java Business Integration requirements, but the
interfaces must be modified to enhance compliance.
When questioned about how Sun planned to support existing SeeBeyond
customers, a spokesman for Sun said, "In the past we have supported
all the customers of companies we have acquired."
He added that the company was unable to reveal its plans for
integrating SeeBeyond until the deal has been finalised.