SUN-NETSCAPE ALLIANCE
In mid-1999 the Sun-Netscape Alliance adopted a new brand name, iPlanet, which would be used on such products as the Netscape Application Server and the Netscape Web Server. In August 1999 the alliance introduced the iPlanet Commerce Integration Suite, which enabled companies to build online trading communities. PC Week's review of the alliance's new iPlanet Web Server Enterprise Edition 4.0 said it "has cemented its position as a top-of-the-line enterprise Web server, providing the power, scalability and features needed to run the busiest and most complex Web sites." Infoworld noted that the Web server was capable of meeting the challenges associated with ensuring reliable uptime, strong security, and acceptable performance.
The Sun-Netscape Alliance also was forming partnerships that would make it a key technology provider for companies that wanted to outsource their e-mail networks. In August it made an agreement with Frontier Corp. whereby Frontier would build an e-mail outsourcing service using Sun-Netscape servers that would support millions of simultaneous users. Frontier also planned to offer calendaring and scheduling features based on software from Sun-Netscape. A similar agreement was made with USA.net, a leading provider of hosted mailboxes.
By the end of 1999 Sun-Netscape was competing in the consolidated electronic billing market. It offered iPlanet BillerXpert Consolidator Edition software as a way for retail banks and other organizations to adopt consolidated electronic billing. Such organization could realize considerable savings over paper-based billing systems by using a single system to issue bills electronically. At this time no other single method or system was available for issuing bills electronically.
New Web servers were released in the first half of 2000, including the iPlanet Web Server, Enterprise Edition 4.1, which upgraded the Netscape Enterprise Server 2.01. Sun-Netscape also unveiled the iPlanet Wireless Server, which offered wireless access to e-mail, directory, and calendar services. In February Sun-Netscape introduced its iPlanet Portal Server, which gave companies an out-of-the-box package for deploying portals. The package included membership services, personalization services, security, and integration services. The product was aimed at e-commerce portals and came in three versions.
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