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SCMP Reporter

Hewlett-Packard (HP), beset by questions about its software strategy, has moved to replace its outdated Netaction middleware initiative with one that supports stronger technology platforms.

Nora Denzel, HP vice-president and general manager for its software global business unit, said the company has found 'a middle ground' that allows it to support its free-to-download application server technology while establishing closer relationships with software partners.

'We want to offer our customers more choices and a richer set of capabilities by partnering with best-of-breed companies,' she said.

Ms Denzel said that customers with smaller, less mission-critical e-business programmes would be able to use HP's free application server software that it acquired from Bluestone Technologies last year.

Companies that need greater scale and industrial-strength features will be referred to technologies from specialist vendors, specifically BEA Systems.

This week, HP announced an expanded relationship with BEA to jointly market, sell and deliver integrated e-business systems - including hardware, software and services - across all HP operating systems. They include HP-UX, OpenVMS, NonStop Kernel and Tru64 Unix, as well as Windows 2000, Windows NT and Linux.

HP hopes to dispel doubts about the future of its Netaction middleware initiative after the company's merger with Compaq Computer.

At its 10th annual software forum, Ms Denzel stressed that HP would rely less on in-house product development and more on partnerships with leading middleware providers.

Middleware is the software that mediates between two separate programs or systems.

Launched last year, Netaction packaged the Bluestone application server program and HP's proprietary e-speak and Process Manager software to form a middleware core that can be used to promote Web-services applications.

But its merger with Compaq prompted HP to reconfigure Netaction as a software infrastructure based on the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and Microsoft's .Net Web-services infrastructure platforms. That meant HP needed to be more neutral to J2EE and .Net, and reduce its commitment to certain aspects of Netaction, particularly its acquired application server. This shift in strategy initially led to rumours that HP would drop Netaction, but Ms Denzel insisted that this was not the case.

According to research firm Gartner, enterprises 'seeking an independent, non-Microsoft software platform will likely find better matches for their requirements from other vendors'.

It added, however, that enterprises 'looking for a multi-platform infrastructure that centres on the .Net architecture may find HP the vendor of choice' next year.

Gartner analyst Massimo Pezzini predicted that HP's commitment to Microsoft would grow, given Compaq's history as Microsoft's largest customer for its Windows operating system.

Meanwhile, HP and BEA have named each other as preferred partners to deliver J2EE e-business solutions using BEA's application infrastructure software.

HP will also become a preferred systems integration partner of BEA with a dedicated team of BEA-certified consultants. HP-UX will become BEA's first enterprise-class Unix operating environment supported on the Itanium processor family.

The expanded relationship will strengthen HP's enterprise integration offerings, helping customers to deploy e-business applications to maximise use of their existing computing infrastructure.



HP turns from Netaction to heftier platforms