Sun and Google Leverage Presence on Internet to Boost Web-Delivered Services

This IDC Insight analyzes the potential impact of the alliance announced by Sun and Google to distribute Google's toolbar on downloads of Sun's Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The pact itself was signed for an undisclosed amount, and details about follow-on go-to-market activities were not announced. But the companies also said that Google would work with Sun to promote the JRE and the OpenOffice.org office productivity suite. Other future possibilities, not announced, that might stem from this alliance are that OpenOffice could be delivered as a Web-enabled software as a service with Google's support and that Google might sign up for volume purchases of Sun's Galaxy x86 servers. There are also potential synergies that could be more far-reaching as the Internet reinvents itself for Web-delivered applications and services.