FYI:
SunRay announcement. It is indeed a departure from what I was expecting. It will be interesting to see how IT departments like the architecture...the SunRay thing really appears to be a dumb terminal, not a smart local device that stores data and programs on the network. The cost issues are going to be a heated sell between SUNW and Wintel. We shall see. I personally favor an architecture that centralizes data but distributes compute cycles. I guess I don't fully grasp the cost issues involved. Maybe full discussion will come out after the announcement.
Regards,
--QwikSand
By Dick Satran SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 7 (Reuters)
Sun Microsystems Inc.(NASDAQ:SUNW), trying again to win followers to its view that personal computers are too complicated and costly, Wednesday will unveil a new dumbed-down appliance for using software over a network.
Sun is unveiling a book-sized device called Sun Ray, which will forego what it called previous "half measures" in network computing that have failed to meet with much success. It plans to unveil the product at the Enterprise Computing Forum in New York.
Sun's innovation is a simple input/output device, a keyboard and a switch for connecting to the Internet or other networks, with zero ability to compute or process on its own. It follows the vision of co-founder and visionary Bill Joy, who says "complexity should be absorbed in the network, not thrust on the user."
Sun's new product is aimed at the vast teams of "knowledge workers" who are not "power users" and use only a handful of the functions that they buy from Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) in machines bundled with its Office software. Among workers who might use the Sun Ray are corporate help desks, back office workers in financial service companies and call centers, Sun said.
Network computing advocates like Sun have had a hard time selling users on stripped-down network computers, partly because PCs themselves have been falling dramatically in price. But Sun argues that the hidden costs of maintenance, service and software upgrades drive the cost of PCs much higher than the initial investment.
Sun says it's new appliances will be more likely to succeed because they are even simpler than previous network computers, which still had some processing capability inside them, which boosted the cost and complexity of using them.
Sun also feels its network offering was enhanced by its acquisition last week of the Star office software, a suite of applications being offered for free over the Internet. Previous network computers were unable to offer the word processing, spreadsheet and other applications Star provides, to compete with Microsoft, the dominant office productivity software.
"Sun has created a compelling offer for certain kinds of workers" said Rob Enderle, of Giga Information Group. "They'll get users who have been complaining about having to incur a 'Microsoft tax' and are more willing than in the past to try something new. It's a simpler product that's going to be less likely to drive trouble and costs to their help desks."
Sun is promoting the ability of the Sun Ray, and the related "Hot Desk" technology, to manage hundreds, or thousands of computer users from a single location, vastly lowering the efficiency of computing operations.
"The architecture takes computing to a new level by taking it off the desktop," said Duane Northcutt, chief scientist for Sun's information appliance division. "You have something on the desktop that does not have to be constantly upgraded and maintained."
Northcutt said that the technology will be an open system, and Sun is encouraging others to develop products under licensing arrangements.
The Sun Ray is initially aimed at large corporate users but the Internet appliance may eventually be adopted for the consumer market, perhaps with America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL), with whom Sun has a technology-sharing arrangement, Sun sources said.
To use Sun Ray, users must be wired direct to a computer network, and there is not a wireless version of the product yet. But Sun said users will be able to work at different locations by carrying a "smart card" that can be put into any terminal.
"Within seconds, users instantly receive their session exactly where they left off and can continue working essentially uninterrupted," said Gail Smith senior vice president, front office development of Scotia Bank, a user of a test version.
Ed Zander, president of Sun, said the new Sun Ray product builds on the "software everywhere" that was the object of its Java system, and its Jini Internet appliance software. Both of which where aimed at giving users software over large computer networks.
The Sun Ray appliance may be leased for $9.99 per month over a five year period and with added features and a 17-inch monitor it will cost "less than $30 per month." The basic pieces are a graphics buffer, a T-interconnect, a smart card reader, keyboard, mouse and two ports.
When the monthly charges are added, the network device "is a bit cheaper than a personal computer and a lot easier to manage." With Star's free software and lower maintenance costs, "they're getting over the argument that network computers cost just as much as PCs," said Enderle.
(Reuters San Francisco office, 415-677-2500)
Copyright 1999, Reuters News Service |
