Sun Microsystems, Inc. is a leading supplier of enterprise network computing products, including workstations, servers, software, microprocessors, and a full range of services and support. Through its software, hardware, and service offerings, the company is well positioned for the open, networked world of the Internet. Sun spent more than a decade working on the network capabilities of its servers, workstations, and operating systems. Its vision was captured by chairman and CEO Scott McNealy's trademarked statement, "The network is the computer."
As of 2001 the company had 40 percent of the high-end UNIX server market for systems costing more than $1 million. Sun's Solaris operating system is the industry's leading version of UNIX with more than 12,000 applications. UNIX was originally developed by AT&T in the 1960s and has undergone extensive refinements over time.
Throughout its history, Sun has resisted the Windows-Intel (Wintel) revolution. By focusing its efforts on optimizing Solaris for its UltraSparc RISC chips, Sun has been able to provide its customers with a continuous line of backward compatibility and scaleability. As a result, Sun's customers could start out small and then scale up their systems as they became larger enterprises.
Sun is also known as the creator of Java, the first universal software platform. The company introduced Java in 1995. Java technology allowed developers to write applications just once for use on any computer. The next year Sun licensed Java technology to all major hardware and software companies.
Sun competes primarily in the enterprise computing market. At first the company dominated the technical workstation market and led in unit shipments. More recently it has been focused on network-driven, UNIX-and Java-based system solutions for enterprise networks and electronic commerce.
PEER-TO-PEER TECHNOLOGY.
As part of its P2P initiative, Sun acquired InfraSearch, also known as Gonesilent.com. InfraSearch developed search technology for P2P communications and offered users real-time P2P information sharing. It appeared that Sun did not intend to join any other industry coalitions working on P2P technology. Research firm The Gartner Group projected that by 2003 some 30 percent of companies would have experimented with data-centered P2P applications for content distribution, and that by 2005 half of all current server-based content-management vendors would offer data-centered P2P technology.
STORAGE TECHNOLOGY.
In 1998 Sun redefined data storage for networked computers by introducing an intelligent storage network architecture that delivered reliability, expandability, and cross-platform information sharing. The company significantly expanded its presence in the open storage market with the 1997 acquisition of Encore Computer Corporation's storage business. By 2000 Sun had captured about 10 percent of the storage hardware market and was the fourth-largest supplier in that market. At the end of 2000 Sun announced it would acquire HighGround Systems, a key developer of storage management technology, for about $400 million. Much of HighGround's development strategy was based on the Windows NT operating system, although under Sun it was expected that HighGround would make its storage resource management software work on the Solaris operating system as well. The 2001 acquisition of LSC, a Minnesota-based producer of file systems and data storage software, for $74 million further strengthened Sun's presence in this market.
E-TRAINING.
Sun was also involved in online training through its Sun Educational Services division. In 2001 the company acquired Isopia, which developed E-learning software, for an undisclosed amount. Isopia's integrated learning-management system was a Java-based software package that managed and delivered course content over the Web. Businesses were expected to spend more than $23 billion on online training by 2004.
User Comments Add a comment…