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Over the next three months, IBM will release new products and services for Java and expand its partnership with JavaSoft, the Sun Microsystems Inc. unit that's developing the Internet programming language, said sources close to IBM, of Armonk, N.Y.

The most significant initiative, set to be unveiled next quarter, is a set of Java APIs for creating server applications, sources said.

The APIs piggyback on top of work under way at IBM to integrate the Java VM (Virtual Machine) into its entire line of operating systems, including OS/2, AIX, OS/400 and MVS. That development is planned for completion by the end of the year, said sources.

The APIs and Java VM integration represent IBM's desire to lead its ISVs and corporate developers away from writing native applications for specific operating systems and instead writing only Java-based applications that can be run across the entire IBM line of platforms.

Some large sites with legacy applications have been looking for such an option for years. "This would be huge for us," said an IS manager of a Midwest transportation company with a large MVS and AIX installed base. "The time and development effort that it would save us would be great. That was the promise of [other] languages, but those turned platform-specific. This is something we have been waiting for, for a long time."

In contrast to development struggles between JavaSoft and Microsoft Corp. (see story, Page 1), IBM and JavaSoft are close to expanding their partnership beyond the simple licensing of Java, said sources.

The two companies are expected to announce next month co-development plans for security and server-based Java technologies, as well as a possible licensing deal for Sun's HotJava client development framework, sources said.

In addition, IBM is conducting "hard-core" efforts to create Java-based development tools, to port the Java VM to Windows 3.1 and to produce services for helping companies deploy Java applications at an enterprise level, said David Gee, IBM's Java marketing manager, and Alan Hess, business development manager for IBM's Internet division.

On the development tool side, IBM will release into beta by the end of the year a version of its VisualAge for Java, Gee said. The tool will be aimed at enabling corporations to create server and client Java applications.

IBM earlier this month posted on its AlphaWorks World Wide Web site a tool called Component Automated Toolkit that will enable IS managers to create Java applications by dragging and dropping Java components.

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