“There’s core elements that are the same, but each vendor then adds stuff on top that’s proprietary to that vendor’s approach,” said Jason Bloomberg, an analyst at market researcher ZapThink. “The proposals from IBM and BEA increase the consistency among Java-based application servers by offering specifications for technologies that would sit on top of the Java platform.”

Besides introducing new technologies, the joint announcement shows a flexing of muscle by the two leading Java vendors, which have begun to overshadow Sun in their influence in directing the development of the Java platform, Bloomberg said.

“With this announcement, we now have the two undisputed market leaders in the Java world getting together and saying we’re going to use the [Java Community Process], but we’re going to use it in a way to help our customers,” Bloomberg said. “They don’t even mention Sun. Sun is irrelevant to what IBM and BEA are doing.”

Read more at: InformationWeek