Sun Microsystems and the GlassFish community announced the availability of the technology preview release of the Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server version 3 and new Sun GlassFish Communications Server. Sun also announced a new GlassFish Partner initiative designed to provide developers, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and System Integrators (SIs) with access to a large number of frameworks and applications running on the GlassFish application server.

GlassFish is an open source application server with more than 7 million downloads since its first release in May 2005. The new release simplifies Web 2.0-style application development with a new modular architecture that developers can use with specific versions of Java technology optimized for their applications and a new update center will notify users about component updates, enabling on-demand downloads. The technology preview release gives developers the opportunity to try their applications on the modular GlassFish architecture and provide feedback to the community before the specification is finalized.

Partner Initiative for Sun Partner Advantage Program
To foster collaboration among developers, ISVs, hosting providers and SIs, Sun also announced a new marketing initiative for Sun Partner Advantage Program members designed to connect GlassFish solution providers to the GlassFish user and developer community. Participants will be showcased in a partner Web site, and on GlassFish community pages, blogs and other communication vehicles.

Many companies, including ICEsoft, Terracotta and Zeus Technology, have already joined this new initiative. "With millions of developers downloading GlassFish, the GlassFish Partner initiative helps Zeus to showcase ZXTM, our extensible application delivery solution, to this important open source community," said Steve Webb, vice president of Strategic Accounts, Zeus Technology. "Additionally, the program gives us access to new business models, expanded markets and increased opportunities for sales engagements, which are particularly important as we develop our ongoing relationship with Sun’s partners and customers."

Unlimited Pricing for GlassFish Enterprise Server Use
Sun introduced GlassFish Unlimited pricing enabling enterprises to purchase the rights of unlimited GlassFish Enterprise Server use for a flat fee based on the number of employees in the organization. Combined with MySQL Unlimited pricing, the new pricing model makes it easier for customers to purchase two of the leading open source products.

Sun GlassFish Communications Server
Sun also announced the new GlassFish Communications Server based on Project SailFin, a GlassFish project to build a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) communications server. Project SailFin is the result of collaboration between Sun and Ericsson that will give developers access to the telecommunications technologies they need to develop next-generation instant messaging, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and shared multimedia applications on the Web. The GlassFish Communications Server is scheduled to be available after the Java Community Process finalizes the JSR 289 specification, which is expected in Q3 2008.

"Customers of GlassFish Communications Server will be able to leverage the high performance, standards-based Java EE and SIP convergence platform to build enterprise applications with integrated communications capabilities," said Karen Tegan Padir, vice president of engineering, Software Infrastructure, Sun Microsystems. "With this telecommunications-grade, open source communications server available on all major OS platforms, service providers can expect accelerated rates of adoption for their Next-Generation Networks (NGNs) based on IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) to offer value-added services and help drive new revenue opportunities."

In related news, Ericsson and Sun announced a joint competition designed to spark innovation among developers and support the creation of next-generation Internet and mobile services. The international competition targets the 7 million members of the Java technology developer community worldwide and will run for a 5-month period with winners to be announced in October 2008. For more information go to http://java.sun.com/javaee/community/campaigns/sun_ericsson-052008/welcome.jsp

For more information on Sun Microsystems contact Cate Hanley, Cate.Hanley@bitepr.com at Bite Communications.