I think thats just an observational bias of companies that went the consultant route. Java was the hot new technology that consultants could bill lots of hours for, so you started to see it everywhere with weak internal IT/systems groups.
Working in the manufacturing/CAD industry at the time, I ran a Sun and SGI shop. Business applications that ran only on Solaris were a much larger demand generator for Sun hardware than some new fancy runtime that at the time could be confused for a passing fad.
We also liked Sun hardware for internal apps because they could literally run for 10+ years in a room filled with a constant mist of machine oil and coolant.
Working in the manufacturing/CAD industry at the time, I ran a Sun and SGI shop. Business applications that ran only on Solaris were a much larger demand generator for Sun hardware than some new fancy runtime that at the time could be confused for a passing fad.
We also liked Sun hardware for internal apps because they could literally run for 10+ years in a room filled with a constant mist of machine oil and coolant.