JBoss Launches Support NetworkJBoss Launches Support Network

As JBoss Inc. stages its first user conference in Atlanta this week, it's launching a customer-service network similar to those already offered by Linux vendor Red Hat Inc. and open-source database vendor MySQL AB.

The open-source Java application-server company on Monday introduced the JBoss Network, a set of subscription services that "will help customers manage their JBoss installations" and "provide tools to upload and apply security patches and other updates," says Marc Fleury, CEO of the company that sells technical support for JBoss.

In launching a technical-support "network," the company is moving from customer-initiated technical support to a more proactive, JBoss-initiated support role. "We can advise a customer how to apply a patch on a grid," Fleury says.

The network also is aimed at helping JBoss users implement the JEMS or JBoss Enterprise Middleware System, an open-source software set associated with the Java Application Server. Included is Hiberate, an open-source-code project on SourceForge at Hibernate.org that helps map Java objects into a relational database, so they can be stored and retrieved as needed.

Also part of JEMS is the JBoss IDE, an integrated development environment for building JBoss applications that plug into the open-source Eclipse programmer's workbench; JBoss Portal for building a portal run by the application server; and Tomcat, the Java servlet engine that manages the Java commands that run a server.

JBoss also is launching a hosted site called the JBoss Federation for open-source projects for building software to work with JBoss. The site will provide the project-management and source-code control of similar sites, such as SourceForge. Projects developed by members of the JBoss Federation will become plug-and-play add-ons to the JBoss suite of middleware, Fleury says.

Fleury says about 600 users of the open-source application server are attending the first JBoss user group.