IPlanet
| Company type | Joint venture product line |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Predecessor | i-Planet, Inc. |
| Founded | January 1996 (i-Planet, Inc.) |
| Fate | Partnership ended in 2001; products rebranded under Sun ONE and Sun Java System; some later revived by Oracle |
| Headquarters | Santa Clara , United States |
| Products | Application Server, Calendar Server, Directory Server, Instant Messaging Server, Messaging Server, Meta Directory, Portal Search, Portal Server, Web Server, Web Proxy Server, E-Commerce Applications (BillerXpert, BuyerXpert, ECXpert, MerchantXpert, SellerXpert, TradingXpert) |
| Owner | Sun Microsystems and Netscape Communications Corporation (jointly) |
iPlanet represented a product line jointly marketed by Sun Microsystems and Netscape Communications Corporation through a non-exclusive cross-promotion arrangement known as the "Sun|Netscape Alliance".
History
After the merger of AOL and Netscape, industry experts believed AOL's main objective was to acquire the netscape.com user community, with secondary interest in the Netscape Communicator software suite, which some anticipated could potentially replace the Internet Explorer browser licensed from Microsoft.
AOL formed a partnership with Sun Microsystems to jointly handle software development, marketing, sales, deployment, and support services. Under this agreement, Sun paid Netscape a fixed yearly fee independent of actual software sales.
Sun obtained the iPlanet brand when it acquired i-Planet, Inc. in October 1998, a company originally established in January 1996.
The collaboration lasted three years and concluded in 2001, with both AOL and Sun maintaining equal ownership rights over the collaboratively developed software code. By August 2001, numerous Netscape personnel were either laid off or relocated to Sun’s offices in Santa Clara, California and Bangalore. During this partnership period, Netscape's hiring was minimal, with most employees working under Sun’s management.
AOL continued to promote directory and certificate server offerings under the Netscape name until divesting them to Red Hat in 2004; Red Hat subsequently open-sourced these products and incorporated them into its Red Hat Enterprise Server lineup (Red Hat Directory Server and Certificate System).
The majority of other iPlanet products were rebranded under the Sun ONE name before transitioning to the Sun Java System brand.
Following Oracle's acquisition of Sun, certain former iPlanet solutions reappeared under the iPlanet label, notably including Oracle iPlanet Web Server and Oracle iPlanet Web Proxy Server.
Products
The iPlanet portfolio comprised:
- iPlanet Application Server, a Java EE application server derived from both Netscape Application Server and NetDynamics Application Server
- iPlanet Calendar Server
- iPlanet Directory Server, an LDAP server later renamed Sun Java System Directory Server
- iPlanet Instant Messaging Server
- iPlanet Messaging Server, supporting protocols such as SMTP, IMAP, POP3, and webmail
- iPlanet Meta Directory
- iPlanet Portal Search (previously known as Netscape Compass)
- iPlanet Portal Server
- iPlanet Web Server, an HTTP/HTTPS server later rebranded as Sun Java System Web Server
- iPlanet Web Proxy Server, subsequently renamed Sun Java System Web Proxy Server
Additionally, the suite included server-side infrastructure components designed for distributed event handling and management of extensive iPlanet server deployments.
Within its "E-Commerce Applications," iPlanet provided tools for building e-commerce solutions:
- iPlanet BillerXpert (focused on billing and financial operations)
- iPlanet BuyerXpert (business-to-business procurement platform)
- iPlanet ECXpert
- iPlanet MerchantXpert
- iPlanet SellerXpert (facilitates both b2b and b2c sales websites)
- iPlanet TradingXpert
- Netscape PublishingXpert