Sun embraces institutions to boost competitiveness

Sun embraces institutions to boost competitiveness

Zatni Arbi, Columnist, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id

In the IT world, competition can get as fierce as the Iraq war.
Contenders may have to fight each other on different fronts at
the same time. One of these fronts is, of course, educational
institutions. Hardware, software and training materials are
distributed to colleges and universities with the hope that
students can learn the technologies and become their defenders
when they later enter the workforce.

There is nothing wrong with this strategy, of course, as long
as the technologies belong to the class of "industry leaders".
Another front the companies are fighting is of course the
government. Companies that can forge a close alliance with the
government of a country will have more survival power than those
who choose to ignore the government. Of course, there is no
guarantee that a government will not go to a company's
competitors. It all depends on the perceived value that the
competitor can offer as opposed to what a company can give.

Governments anywhere in the world do not really have to honor
their commitments in the private sector, do they? Government
officials are paid to receive or ask for anything from the
private sector with as little strings attached as possible.

* The sun still shines

Sun Microsystems is a case in point. Sun may not be a
household name for computer end users. However, enterprises all
over the world, especially in the telecommunications, finance and
manufacturing industries, will proudly say that they have Sun's
Sun Fire servers to run their mission-critical applications and
infrastructure.

Sun is undoubtedly one of the leaders in the large-scale,
UNIX-based server and storage systems. The company also makes
powerful UNIX workstations that are used to design complex
integrated circuits, for example.

Another very formidable technology that has come out of Sun
Microsystems is Java. Mind you, the majority of the current batch
of high-end cell phones are Java-enabled. This feature enables
richer applications to be run on the small gadgets, and it will
expand the functionality of a cell phone to include location-
based information and mobile commerce.

Sun was founded in 1982 with only four employees. The name Sun
was actually an abbreviation for Stanford University Network. One
of the co-founders, Scott McNealy, is now the chairman, president
and CEO of the company.

"The network is the computer," McNealy said many years ago. At
that time, I could not really understand what he meant -- except
that it was meant to belittle two of his company's archrivals,
Intel and Microsoft. Today, however, as the network has become
such an indispensable part of our daily computing activities, I
know that he actually predated the advancement of technology.
Indeed, unless our computer is connected to another or to the
Internet, we do not feel that we have everything that we need to
do our job.

Sun does not have the world to itself, of course. In the high-
end UNIX server segment, for example, it has to compete with big
players, such as IBM and HP-Compaq. Its version of UNIX, Solaris,
is facing growing pressure from the increasingly popular Linux,
which has also been receiving strong backing from IBM and others.
Sun has also begun to adopt Linux, and the latest Sun Ray
stations are now based on Linux.

* Java Tarik ONE

McNealy was traveling in the region this month, with stops in
China, Australia and Singapore. In Singapore, he signed an
agreement to take Sun's collaboration with Singapore's Infocomm
Development Authority to a program called Java Tarik ONE. The
word "Tarik" of course, is Malay for "pull", but it seems that
they also use it to mean a "pool". Well, many Singaporeans cannot
pronounce these two words distinctly anyway.

It is meant to build a pool of Java professionals,
nonetheless. In her address at the launch of the Java Tarik ONE,
IDA's CEO, Mrs. Tan Ching Yee, reported that the earlier Java
Tarik program, which was launched in 1997, had generated US$80
million in investments for Singapore and expanded Java's adoption
into the wireless Web services and ASP sectors. More importantly,
Singapore currently has about 50,000 Java developers. This number
is the third largest in the Asia Pacific region, with India and
China as the top two countries. However, given the fact that
Singapore has such a small population compared to these two
countries, the figure of 50,000 strongly reflects the dominance
of Java technology. The program has also resulted in about 50
products and applications.

The new Java Tarik ONE, so named to reflect Singapore One
Network for Everyone initiative and Sun Microsystems' Open Net
Environment, is expected to garner a $57,000 investment. Half of
it will be provided by IDA and Sun and the rest from industry
players.

* Contribution to education $700m

Besides strengthening its ties with IDA, Sun Microsystems also
announced its contribution to educational institutions in Asia,
including institutes of higher education in Singapore and
Indonesia. The company is donating hardware and software,
including free licenses of its Java language, Solaris operating
system, Sun ONE infrastructure software and StarOffice suite.

StarOffice, which is now in Version 6.0, is actually Sun's
weapon for taking on the domination of Microsoft Office. The
suite, which has received a lot of rave reviews, is offered at a
much lower price than MS Office and even WordPerfect Office. Sun
bought it from a small company and then developed it into a full-
fledged office productivity tool. Today it is being offered for
$75.95, but those in the academic world can use it for free.

StarOffice is just one of about 120 products that Sun is
making available to educational institutions for free. The total
value of this donation is estimated to reach $700 million.

One question remains, though: How effective will their
approach of giving away products to students and teachers be in
the long run in contributing to the company's bottom line? This
remains to be seen. Clearly, Sun has to complement this strategy
with continuously improved technologies to ensure its survival in
this highly competitive industry.