Continuing on my rant about app server migration (Migration Between Application Server Versions), to me one of the mysteries of the app server arena is Sun's own. I've never been able to figure out why Sun doesn't have a decent share of the app server market - after all they own the technology, don't they? But then, has Sun ever made any money on software? And more so, on Java software? Java Web Server, Java Studio, Netscape Application Server, Kiva, NetDynamics, iPlanet and so on in a list of home grown and acquired software products that never captured the market in mainsteream enterprise applications.

Now, besides giving it away for free on hardware, Sun is making a desparate attempt to entice clients by giving them tools to migrate existing applications away from competing vendors's app servers. Not surprisingly, the main servers it targets are the market leaders - IBM and WebLogic. However, if you consider the migration tool, for WAS, only migration from version 4.x onwards is supported. Check out Sun One Migration Tool for Application Server  for an interesting presentation on the migration tool.

Currently IBM is encouraging clients to move from WAS 2.x, 3.x and 4.x to 5.x. Many of these clients have already bought into the migration. And some are in various stages of migrating all the earlier versions to 5.x. This already limits the incentive to migrate to Sun's server. Too, for an organization that has already invested in IBM software, hardware, and services, this is not a very attractive proposition. Plus, given Sun's reputation in the app server market, it remains to be seen if this ploy is going to have any success.