News
Sun Releases New Subscription-Focused Java SE for Business
- By Becky Nagel
- April 8, 2008
On Monday Sun Microsystems released Java Standard Edition (SE) for Business, a new subscription version of Java SE that offers companies features such as extended support, enterprise deployment tools, and faster and better update rollouts, according to a company statement.
Java SE for Business has three subscription levels: Standard, Premium and Premium Plus. These plans offer maintenance support beyond the three years that Sun offers for its nonsubscription Java SE version. Standard and Premium plans both offer 10 years of maintenance support. Premium Plus subscribers have support for 15 years total (10 years support through the version's planned decade life span plus five years after the software has been retired).
Premium and Premium Plus subscribers also get 24x7 support, "immediate" response from support teams (vs. up to four hours for Standard) and access to Sun's VIP Interop Support.
All subscribers have access to fixes. However, Premium and Premium Plus subscribers "can request their critical fix to be considered for the next available revision or update," the company said. A "revision" is a complete platform fix that is available only to Java SE for Business subscribers, according to Sun's FAQ.
Sun also announced that Java SE for Business will be available through integrators and ISVs.
"Java SE for Business was created based on the feedback Sun received from a large number of our customers and ISVs who requested we extend the amount of time that Sun provides updates for Java SE releases via a paid support offering,"commented Jeet Kaul, vice president of the Client Software Group at Sun, in a released statement.
"Customers and partners running Java applications on older release families now have a choice of either migrating to a newer release or subscribing to Java SE for Business to continue receiving critical reliability, availability and security updates, as well as new operating environment support for their existing applications,"Kaul continued.
Sun's statement indicated that the company will continue to support the nonsubscription-based Java SE through quarterly updates. Future updates will be developed through http://openjdk.java.net/ under a GPL license.
More information on Java SE for Business can be found through Sun's Web site here.