CSY’s engineers have been candid about the state of the Web server’s code, licensed from Netscape in 1997 for inclusion in MPE/iX 6.0 PowerPatch 1 next year. Reports of less-than-Posix-standard programming were offered as a reason that the port has slipped so far behind schedule. HP initially thought it could offer FastTrack during 1998, as early as the first half of this year.>

After demonstrating the working Web server in its booth at HP World in August, CSY has begun to suggest it might make Apache/iX its preferred server instead. With the FastTrack porting work essentially completed and in tests, the shift in strategy appears to stem from support issues as much as from technical capabilities.

Even before the Netscape sale was announced, CSY was considering steps to avoid having another Web server port orphaned by its maker. The last supported Web server for MPE/iX, Open Market, was dropped by its vendor just as CSY began to bundle it during 1997 for new HP 3000 sales.

AOL’s $4.2 billion purchase of Netscape moves the company’s server products into the hands of Sun Microsystems, one of AOL’s new partners in e-commerce software. CSY is now faced with having a systems competitor hold the source code for a product ready to be bundled in the 3000’s operating system

Joe Geiser, chairman of the SIGWEB Special Interest Group of Interex, said choosing Apache as an alternative could eliminate such conflicts of interest.

“With Sun acquiring all of the server software from Netscape, this becomes more of one competitor using another competitor’s product,” Geiser said. “Apache runs rather nicely on the 3000 and can probably do some nice things with CGI. If HP places the same emphasis in Apache as IBM has, we should have a great product on our hands.”

Apache, a Web server that is Open Software like Linux and Samba, was ported to the HP 3000 as early as 1995. This Apache/iX software is a preferred choice among Webmasters who want a lot of configuration control, and is already working in some production environments among HP 3000 sites.

IBM announced support for Apache in May as part of its WebSphere Application Server, a software product for building Web-based applications. Geiser said HP’s vote for Apache would further remove the stigma from pressing such open-sourced software into production use.

“Now that the hardware manufacturers such as HP and IBM are recognizing the value of Open Software,” Geiser said, “this software should really take off and be officially recognized by the IS directors — who had trouble dealing with this software, mostly because of support issues.”

HP’s Alvina Nishimoto, the Internet R&D Program manager for CSY, said that security features not supported in Apache could be added by using Stronghold, a commercially supported secure version of the Apache software from C2Net (510.986.8770, www.c2net.com). Stronghold supports the new Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, the IETF standardized version of the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

The C2Net product is currently being offered in $995 Unix versions which could be ported to the HP 3000. CSY was evaluating Stronghold as a potential successor for Open Market in 1997 before HP announced the license for FastTrack.

But 3000 customers who don’t require SSL security could use the Apache/iX version, once it’s supported in a future version of MPE/iX by HP. The need for SSL security could be eliminated by using Apache in intranets behind firewalls.

Michael Gueterman of Easy Does It Technologies, a Web consultancy to the HP 3000 community, said CSY’s embrace of Apache will need Stronghold’s security component to satisfy HP customers.

“Apache on MPE/iX is a good solution for CSY as long as they make the Stronghold SSL product available for purchase on the HP price list,” he said. “Many companies want that single-point source.”

Gueterman added that choosing open-sourced software gives CSY the one thing it lacked with prior deals: control of Web server source code from the start of the deal.