From the archive: SAP gunning for application server market

NEWS SAP has set its sights on the application server market in a move that will have been registered at the headquarters of market leaders BEA Systems and IBM. Application server software is middleware that helps create an ebusiness from a company's existing IT systems. Applications - often written in Java - are served up to the internet, allowing enterprise connectivity. Yet the market is fierce. As well as BEA and IBM, iPlanet (a Sun unit), Microsoft, Sybase and SAP archrival Oracle all want part of the action. Today's FT rather cryptically quotes SAP boss Hasso Plattner talking about the move at a Leipzig trade fair, saying: "We have always been developing good technology and now we are going to sell it as well." No further details of the strategy are available at this time.