News
Issue #2002 - 36 (September 2002)
(Updated Sep. 25, 2002)

APPLICATIONS & APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

BEA's WebLogic Replaces HP's Abandoned Application server on HP-UX 11i Systems

LOS ANGELES — HP WORLD — September 23, 2002 — BEA Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BEAS), the world's leading application infrastructure software company, and HP (NYSE: HPQ) today announced two new offerings that will assist customers seeking to develop and manage their business in real-time.

Key to today's announcement is a joint initiative to make a six-month trial version of the world's #1 J2EE Web application server - the BEA WebLogic Server 7.0 Advantage Edition™ -- available to HP-UX 11i customers. Beginning later this month, BEA WebLogic Server 7.0 Advantage Edition will begin shipping with each HP-UX 11i system, the highly optimized, secure and reliable operating system. Additionally, HP customers who have a current support contract for either HP-UX 11.0 or 11i will also receive this special offer, which allows customers to use their BEA WebLogic Server Advantage License for six months at no charge.

To enable customers to deploy on HP-UX 11i with BEA WebLogic Server 7.0™, HP has dedicated services and consulting resources in solution centers around the world. Technical support will also be available to developers via the BEA Web site. BEA also plans to provide support for the BEA WebLogic Server on all HP platforms including NonStop Kernel (NSK), OpenVMS and Tru64 Unix as well as Windows 2000 and Linux.

"This is a great offer from HP and BEA," said Pat Medlock, director of data center operations, Syntellect Hosted Services Group - a global leader in open systems, enterprise voice portal software, and hosted services, which play an integral role in an enterprise's full customer relationship management (CRM) strategy. "As an existing customer of HP and BEA, we can testify to the benefits we receive from their end-to-end integrated solutions approach. In fact, thanks to HP's exceptional support team and comprehensive commitment to our own business, we have successfully maintained an always-on status for 3 ½ years with 99.9 percent uptime. That's hard to beat."

At the same time, HP has announced the expansion of its comprehensive portfolio of HP OpenView software solutions for managing and optimizing complex business services, providing customers with simplified and ongoing management of real-time transactions. The new HP OpenView Transaction Analyzer (OVTA) uses transaction management application program interfaces, co-developed with BEA, to monitor BEA WebLogic Server 6.X and 7.0. It is the industry's first solution to provide tag-and-trace capability that automatically troubleshoots performance bottlenecks in both J2EE and Microsoft DNA application infrastructures by analyzing the actual path of all transactions and quickly locating network, server or application troubles.

Customers will be able to deploy the HP OVTA on its own or with its sister product, HP OpenView Internet Services, for complete response time monitoring and diagnosis. The HP OpenView Smart Plug-in for BEA WebLogic Server is also available for BEA WebLogic Server 6.X and 7.0 and continually monitors the WebLogic Server infrastructure to ensure that critical errors are discovered, processes are running and any areas for the WebLogic Server that need to be reconfigured are immediately identified. Additionally, BEA has named the HP OpenView suite as a preferred strategic product for services management.

"BEA Systems' strong presence in the application server market makes them a natural choice as a primary enterprise and mid-market e-business infrastructure provider," said Scott Stallard, senior vice president and general manager, HP Business Critical Systems. "And by delivering a six-month trial version of BEA WebLogic Server 7.0 with every HP-UX 11i server, we are further simplifying the decision making for our customers by providing quick deployment and fast results."

"The HP and BEA alliance is proving to be a formidable force in the marketplace," said Tod Nielsen, chief marketing officer, BEA Systems. "The bundling initiative is just the beginning of a strategic effort to combine application development and hardware optimization efforts in order to offer enterprise customers exceptional solutions backed by the reliability and integrity of two of the industry's most respected leaders."

Today's announcement follows earlier announcements this year that have strengthened HP and BEA's relationship in the market and provided customers with greater choice across application infrastructures. The relationship includes plans across multiple operating systems including HP-UX, NonStop Kernel (NSK), OpenVMS and Tru64 Unix as well as Windows 2000 and Linux.

About HP 
HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and businesses. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. HP completed its merger transaction involving Compaq Computer Corp. on May 3, 2002.

About BEA
BEA Systems, Inc. is one of the leading application server software providers.

For more information: http://www.bea.com and http://www.hp.com

MobileInfo Comments and Advisory:  This is good news for BEA who knows the Application server business better than any body else. It almost invented it. If HP completely relies on WebLogic App server for all its systems, it will give BEA a very good edge over IBM, Sun  and Oracle. But we are not sure whether HP will continue to rely on an outsider for rather important piece of the web services puzzle. We think that it is tactical move. 

However, BEA's WebLogic is not as much mobile and wireless-enabled as other application servers. We would encourage BEA to put some more resources in this effort. This could make a very good general-purpose Application Server even better.

Note: This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should take appropriate caution in developing plans utilizing these products, services and technology architectures.  All trademarks used in this summary are the property of their respective owners.