Definition: Sun-Netscape Alliance

(Sun-Netscape Alliance, Santa Clara, CA) A joint venture of Sun and Netscape to market Netscape's Web-based software products. The Alliance was formed when AOL acquired Netscape in 1999 to take advantage of the fact that the bulk of Netscape software was already running on Sun hardware. Netscape product names were replaced by the iPlanet brand name.

In March 2002, the Alliance was concluded, and iPlanet became a division of Sun and a core component of the Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE). Sun retained the intellectual property rights for all products and the engineering and support organizations were fully staffed by Sun employees. iPlanet software became Sun ONE software, which changed its name in late 2003 to the Sun Java System brand.