The newly available Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) for Business is designed for large enterprise customers looking for longer, more predictable support for the platform with up to 15 years per family.

Prior to this release, Sun provided quarterly fixes for release families of Java SE for up to six years. Customers will continue to have this option as well as freely download and use traditional Java SE, which Sun will support at no cost for three years per release family. But, in addition to these selections, the Java SE for Business will allow customers the flexibility to subscribe to a total of 15 years of fixes per release family.

Java SE for Business is available via a company wide license with three levels of support - standard, premium and premium plus - and is priced per employee per year, ranging from $10 to $12.50.

Internetnews.com's Andy Patrizio reported the specifics on the pricing as follows:

• Premium Plus ($12.50 per employee per year) provides the highest level of support with up to 15 years and includes the ability for a customer to request custom fixes from Sun.

• Premium ($11 per employee per year) provides the critical security and reliability fixes on a bi-weekly basis for up to 15 years.

• Standard ($10 per employee per year) provides customers or partners with access to the same type of support they've had with Sun's traditional Java SE product, but for much longer -- up to 15 years -- instead of the traditional six.

This new subscription support plan is available for Java SE version families 1.4, 5.0 and 6 and for the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS), Windows and Red Hat Linux. Customers running on Solaris OS can receive access to Java SE for Business for Solaris at no additional cost.

According to Sun, Java SE for Business offers faster access to mission critical reliability and security fixes through Java SE for Business Revisions. Customers will be able to get specific fixes that they request from Sun faster than ever before.

Sun can also add a specific fix to an older update or release — regardless of platform — to solve a problem on a customer's system. This solves crucial problems quickly, and does so without inflicting wholesale changes on otherwise well-performing systems. "A JDK with an update that fixes what's actually wrong (at the customer's site) is pretty compelling," Brad Shimmin, principal analyst, Application Infrastructure at Current Analysis, a research firm in Sterling, Virginia, told Sun's Leslie T. O'Neill.

Jeet Kaul, vice president, Client Software Group at Sun, added, "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."

Sun also plans additional features for Java SE for Business including a new IT managed Java auto-update and integration with Sun xVM Ops Center. These features will enable IT managers to have greater visibility into Java software applications across their company, as well as increase their ability to manage these deployments.

Listen to an interview with David Bryant, senior director of Java Marketing of Sun, who discusses the new subscription service for Java SE support.

Learn more at about this new offering at the Java SE for Business product page. [...read more...]

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