SYSTEMS

CEBIT, HANNOVER, Germany -- Sun Microsystems announced today the establishment of a joint Java(TM) Technology Center located at the SAP(R) AG headquarters in Walldorf, Germany. Building on Sun's leadership and innovation in Java technology, the Center's charter is to assess, promote and optimize Java technology for adoption in the SAP NetWeaver(TM) technology platform, the business-ready, services-oriented technology platform for all SAP(R) solutions. Since its introduction in 1995, the Java platform has spread more quickly across the industry than any other new technology in computing history, and is widely recognized as the first computer language developed with the network in mind. Engineers assigned to the Center from Sun and SAP can leverage this momentum and expertise for faster time to market and a higher quality of service of Java technologies in SAP NetWeaver -- the integration and application platform that helps unify and align people, information and business processes across technologies and organizational boundaries. "SAP is delivering to the commitment of an open, standards-based technology architecture, and we consider Java technology to be a core component of our strategy because of the momentum the Java technology community has in shaping an industry-wide standard platform for e-business applications," said Stephan Rossius, senior vice president of global partner management, SAP AG. "In tandem with market demand, and, with the creation of the Java Technology Center and our work on integrating open standards-based Java technology into SAP NetWeaver, Sun and SAP have really turned the page for Java adoption, both in SAP solutions and in the SAP user community." In accordance with a survey conducted by Peerstone Research*, four of every five Fortune 1000 organizations running or evaluating a major enterprise application package, such as customer relationship management (CRM), business financials or enterprise resource planning (ERP), say they expect their mission critical applications to run on a J2EE-compliant application server. The evolution and global adoption of Java technology helps inspire innovation supported by a level playing field and protected by the Java Community Process(SM). With Java technology standards, customers can leverage existing applications with future applications in a secure, Web-ready environment. To support and adopt Java technology in SAP solutions, and to accelerate time-to-market, engineers from both companies sit side-by-side to: -- Integrate Java technology into SAP solutions -- Continuously optimize the performance of Java-based applications from SAP -- Support SAP customers using Java-based applications, including those running on Windows "The tight integration of Sun innovation, Java technology, and SAP solutions is a key benefit of the strategic global alliance, and another reason why many customers run their custom-developed Java application and SAP Web Application Server on Sun systems," said Stuart Wells, senior vice president, Sun Microsystems Market Development Organization. "Since its inception, Sun's vision and single purpose is to provide the building blocks of an open, standards-based, secure global network. We see the joint Java Technology Center as a means to enable SAP to build mission critical applications to the same principles, with the SAP Web Application Server and Java technology at the heart of enterprise."