Neowin.net

The red-hot Web-conferencing space got a big boost on Monday, when Microsoft unveiled its new Live Meeting software. The software, Microsoft's first real attempt to enter the Web-conferencing space, appears at a time when the sector as a whole is seeing annual growth rates north of 40 percent, according to the Yankee Group.

For investors in industry leaders such as WebEx Communications and Raindance Communications, however, the arrival of Redmond's crew is a pretty tough bit of news.

Still, it's hardly a surprise: Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) bought the technology that forms the backbone of its conferencing product in January and has been making noise about entering the space ever since. This may be one of the reasons Wall Street reacted with a collective shrug upon hearing Microsoft's product announcement.

Shares of both WebEx and Raindance were up slightly on Monday, and both companies -- like most tech companies these days -- have seen their stock prices rise steadily since about April of this year, despite the impending arrival of Microsoft into the arena.

News source: CNN Money

"Every service will ultimately become a shared network service. So the purpose is to enable and encourage shared network services and making it simple," he said.

So, for instance, network identity, communication and collaboration, portal services, web and application services are all integrated into the single Java Enterprise System.

In addition, Schwartz said that Java smartcard access was becoming the de facto secure authentication method for e-commerce. Java card authentication services was one of the new products announced.

To avoid such things as identity theft, everyone must move towards smartcard authentication, according to Schwartz. "Anonymity breeds mischief," he said.

Also announced at the conference were 10 new or enhanced network services components included in the Java Enterprise System.

These include Software Express, a method for allowing customers early access when key software environments are revised and enhanced.

The six Sun systems with their US pricing are:

Java Enterprise System
This consolidates the entire Sun network services architecture. Price: $100 per employee per year covering unlimited internet application access.

Java Desktop System
Formerly Project Mad Hatter, this includes new StarOffice version 7, Mozilla browser, Ximian Evolution e-mail and calendaring, RealNetworks RealONE and Macromedia Flash. Price: $100 per desktop or $50 per employee as an add-on to Java Enterprise System.

Java Enterprise Studio
An integrated development environment and consolidated developer tool-set including plug-ins, connector builders, code samples support and runtime environment. Price: $5 per employee as an add-on to Java Enterprise System.

N1
An operator's environment which provides virtualisation and provisioning services for storage, servers and blade servers. Newly-released N1 CentreRun 4.0 aims at one-keystroke deployment for any new shared services. (Pricing not supplied.)

The remaining two services were announced for future deployment:

Sun Java Mobility System
An integrated environment for delivering services to Java-enabled devices including phones and PDAs. (Sun estimates that there are over 200 million of these available today.)

Sun Java Card System
This provides personal authentication services for secure e-commerce and service delivery on Java-based smartcards. (Sun estimates that there are 500 million already deployed worldwide.)