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SunSoft Takes Aim At Microsoft And Novell

Sun unit will roll out enhanced Solaris servers to lure corporate NetWare users seeking Net links
By Clinton Wilder with John Swenson and Kate Maddox
Issue date: March 25, 1996

The Internet has become the computer industry's most competitive battleground since Sun Microsystems' SunSoft division captured the best-of-show award at NetWorld+Interop 1995 with its Solaris Server Suit e of Internet server software.

At this year's show, SunSoft will launch a direct assault on Microsoft and Novell when it rolls out an enhanced Solaris Server line targeted directly at the millions of Novell NetWare corporate users still looking to hook up to the Net. Sun's launch will spearhead a host of Internet-related products debuting at the show.

The SunSoft Internet server line is optimized for version 2.5 of SunSoft's Solaris operating system, which debuted in December. The line is composed of an applications server, PC network administration server, Internet gateway server, and base server. Pricing hasn't been finalized, but SunSoft will offer discounts to users who buy before Sun's fiscal year ends on June 30.

Flagship Enhanced
The flagship gateway server has been renamed Solaris Internet Server and will include a variety of enhancements. One of the most significant is Solarnet WebScout/NW, which provides an IPX gateway to the Internet for NetWare LANs. Sun says that will contrast directly with Microsoft's Internet server approach to NetWare users, which does not include IPX support. "Microsoft is taking the confrontational approach. They go in to NetWare sites and say 'Rip out your IPX,'" says Dave Becker, Solaris Internet Server product marketing manager at SunSoft in Mountain View, Calif. "We say 'Embrace Novell, but remove its operating system limitations.'"

Becker also touts the new Solaris server's integration of native Domain Name Service directory support, whereas Microsoft's server relies on third-party products for DNS support. SunSoft's PC network administration server, renamed Solaris PC Administration Server, will include new software distribution and software-usage metering features and will be database-independent. Microsoft's Systems Management Server requires the use of Microsoft's SQL Server.

SunSoft also is expected to unveil the latest version of its Solstice message server. The Solaris server line will repres ent another attack in the erstwhile war between Solaris and Microsoft Windows NT for World Wide Web server platform market share. "All the problems that surround NT, such as scalability and enterprisewide performance, carry forward into the Internet environment," says Tony Hampel, Solaris server product line manager at SunSoft. "You need to get past all the hoopla of what the Net can do for you and look at the basics, such as the value of the operating system that the Web server runs on."

Meanwhile, Microsoft hopes to steer the talk at N+I to its own new Internet strategy (IW, March 18, p. 14) , and the completion and release of Exchange, more than four years after it began work on the product, the successor to Microsoft Mail.

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