JBoss Group to Offer Support Services for Panther

JBoss Group, LLC revealed early Tuesday that it will offer professional support services to customers using Apple’s Mac OS X version 10.3 ‘Panther’ Server.

JBoss Group announced Tuesday it will offer professional support services to customers using Apple’s Mac OS X version 10.3 ‘Panther’ Server.

JBoss is already involved with Panther. Its popular open source JBoss application server comes standard with Apple’s latest operating system.

According to this announcement, JBoss will offer a full range of enterprise-level services, including support, training, and consulting services, to Panther users.

“Apple’s decision to embed the JBoss server continues a trend in which many of the leading hardware, OS, and software vendors are bundling our core technology,” said Marc Fleury, president and founder of JBoss Group. “JBoss is becoming the default standard for building enterprise Web applications because of its robust features, rock-solid stability, high quality and the services available from JBoss Group, such as the ability to provide enterprise customers with 24 X 7 support.”

With support services for Panther, JBoss is claiming its app server is available on more operating systems and hardware platforms than any other.

A developer edition of Panther was unveiled last month. It incorporates the JBoss application server for running J2EE-based applications, including Enterprise Java Bean components. Panther Server also features new deployment tools with a graphical user interface to configure existing J2EE applications for hosting on Mac OS X Server.

Panther contains more than 100 new features, according to Apple. Key additions are new compilers and a new IPSec-based VPN, Automatic Setup for easily setting up multiple servers, Open Directory 2 for hosting scalable LDAP directory and Kerberos authentication services, and Samba 3 for providing login and home directory support for Windows clients.

Panther is is scheduled to hit retail stores later this year.