Related: Analyst gauges tool move
- By Michael W. Bucken
- August 1, 2002
Longtime BEA watcher Michael Gilpin, an analyst at Cambridge, Mass.-based researcher
Giga Information Group, said BEA's move to abandon its investment in and agreement
with Santa Clara, Calif.-based WebGain for development tools is a good one that
should have occurred earlier. "BEA has already lost momentum, mostly due
to a change in the market but also due to execution. Now BEA has recognized
that they can't rely only on application server leadership to be a platform
leader. They need to be a broad platform solution provider," noted Gilpin.
Gilpin said his firm has "been making this recommendation for a long time.
There still is a distinct class of customer that prefers specialized tool vendors,
but for the most part the mainstream market is looking for a comprehensive solution."
And that 'distinct customer' was not turning to the WebGain tools offered by
BEA as an add-on, "which tended to lose out against other tools like JBuilder,"
he noted.
BEA's investment in WebGain was "a mistake from the start," he said.
But "they have learned from that mistake. The decision was also a cultural
phenomenon. Adam Bosworth and Tod Nielsen come from a background as mainstream
tool builders. And as BEA moved to the mainstream tool market, it was looking
to appeal to a wider audience."
About the Author
Mike Bucken is former Editor-in-Chief of Application Development Trends magazine.