Dell picks JBoss to provide server software

The partnership lets the open-source vendor take advantage of Dell's sizeable federal market presence.

Dell will bundle open-source application server software from JBoss as part of Dell's PowerEdge server products. The companies announced the deal today.

Dell has added JBoss Application Server and JBoss Network to the LAMP stack, open-source software that resides on the servers. LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP/Perl.

JBoss Application Server is a J2EE-certified product for developing and deploying Java applications. The application server is part of the JBoss Enterprise Middleware System. JBoss Network is a subscription service that offers access to the system's technical knowledge base, bug fixes and patches, and system infrastructure monitoring.

The addition of JBoss holds significance for the federal market given Dell’s big footprint in server sales, said Drew Ladner, general manager of JBoss’ Government Group. He added that Dell has not previously formed partnerships in the middleware space, where BEA Systems’ WebLogic Server and IBM’s WebSphere command a sizeable chunk of the market.

In July, IDC ranked IBM as the market share leader with a 37 percent slice of the 2004 application deployment software market. BEA, with 12 percent, and Oracle, with 7 percent are ranked second and third.

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