Worth Mentioning

In the application server market, I think there is one company you should have mentioned and one you should have assessed in the "Where Are They Now?" sidebar ("Twelve Hot Companies to Watch," January 1, 2001).

Allaire Corp.'s JRun is an easy to install and configure application server that is sleek and fast. The newest version, JRun 3.0, is every bit as fine and robust as 2.3.3. It's especially nice that the Pro version is available for servlet and JSP prorammers at a very attractive price. The enterprise version provides a J2EE platform. I'm just testing JRun Studio with the Pro version, and it's a very sweet package. Couple these features with Allaire's Cold Fusion product, its recent acquisition of the Kawa Java IDE from Tek-Tools Inc., and its server clustering technology, and I think you have a "hot" company.

Netscape's enterprise server, now part of the iPlanet (Sun Microsystems-Netscape Alliance) line of products, deserved at least a "Where Are They Now" mention. A great many applications were built on Netscape's server products.

I find it surprising that you could find no space in your January issue to mention these important products, which I think threatened Microsoft much more than the Netscape browser.

Ron Emaus
Preclinical Systems Analyst
Pfizer Global Research and Development
Ann Arbor, Mich.

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IE Responds:

Ron, thank you for bringing this omission to our attention.

Although iPlanet should arguably have been included in our "Don't Forget ..." roundup in "Twelve Hot Companies to Watch 2001," the "Where Are They Now?" sidebar to which you refer was intended to address only those companies that made the top-12 list in our 2000 edition.

We do our best to address the huge array of available technology out there. It's more than likely that you'll see coverage of iPlanet in a future issue.

Survey Wrap-Ups

> According to San Francisco-based Webmergers.com, at least 210 Internet companies closed up shop in 2000, which translates to $1.5 billion in investment money that was lost. Most of the failures came at the year's end with 60 percent of the closures happening in the fourth quarter. Furthermore, 15,000 employees lost their jobs - even more if dot-com layoffs are brought into the picture.

>After surveying 100 data storage-centric systems integrators and resellers, BakBone Software Inc. found that most believe their clients' needs will continue to rise this year, possibly by 75 percent. The survey also found that companies are using storage area networks (SANs) more than in the past.

> E-commerce software, supply chain applications, and application servers will be the three largest growth industries in 2001, according to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's annual survey. This survey of CIOs from 150 leading American companies also found that IT budgets will increase 8 percent, down from the 12 percent increase in 1999.