Keane Insight - News Analysis

Here comes the Sun Ray

Mobility, security and TCO meet low-cost computing in the Sun Ray thin-client, says Akhtar Pasha

K P Unnikrishnan says that the Sun Ray attacks cost from all angles and will be the perfect icing on the cake for Sun’s low-cost computing offerings

Mobility, security and keeping the total cost of ownership (TCO) low are key concerns of any CIO today. With Sun Ray appliances and Java-enabled smart cards, mobility means having your desktop available to you wherever you are. Just plug in the smart card and there’s your desktop with your data and applications. Sun Microsystems demonstrated its Low-Cost Computing (LCC) offering, the Sun Ray thin-client at its Asia South Media and Analyst Symposium 2003 in Singapore recently. K P Unnikrishnan, country head-marketing, Sun Microsystems India says, “The Sun Ray can attack cost from all angles; low-cost network compute elements (RISC/x86, Solaris, Linux), low-cost solutions/deployment (Sun Java Enterprise System) and lower total cost of ownership (N1). And with the recently launched Java Desktop System (JDS), it will be the perfect icing on the cake for our low-cost computing offerings.”

What’s in the Sun Ray?

Sun has both RISC-based rack servers (Sun Fire V240 and V250) and Intel Xeon-based servers (Sun Fire V60 and V65x), with a choice of OSes—Solaris and Linux. Sun’s Java Enterprise System, a bundle of enterprise software applications, takes care of software upgrades for a fixed charge of $100 per employee. According to Sun’s estimates, 25 Sun Ray thin clients and a Sun Fire V210 server will cost in the range of Rs 9 to 10 lakh. The other element of low-cost computing from Sun will be its Java Desktop System (JDS), an alternative desktop solution priced much lower (Rs 4,600) than Microsoft Office. The cost of JDS includes software, support and training. JDS is based on Open Source software consisting of a Gnome desktop, the Mozilla Web browser, StarOffice, Ximian Evolution and SuSE Linux.

Educational institutions snap it up

Worldwide, Sun has 300,000 installations of Sun Ray thin-clients. Of this there are a 1,000-plus installations in India. The Sun Ray is being used by IITs in Chennai, Delhi, Kanpur and Trivandrum and iiit-Bangalore. Other customers include Reliance, United Technologies, Anna University and Jaypee International.

Customer’s pick

Dr C Chellapan, professor and director, Ramanujan Computer Centre at Anna University says, “The Sun Ray system helps us reduce IT costs by a good margin. It reduces vendor dependency and delivers an architecture that allows complete remote installation and administration, which can result in savings of 50 to 60 percent.” The centre has 80 Sun Ray thin-clients and a Enterprise 3500 Sun server (with 4 CPUs, 100 GB SCSI and 1 GB Fibre Channel). StarOffice 6 is the office productivity suite being used. By upgrading the processors or memory on the server all users at the Ramanujan Computer Centre benefit instantly. Dr Chellapan says, “These kinds of cost savings can dramatically improve productivity and allow us to provision the application appropriate to the job function. There are also lower costs associated with hardware. When you want to replace a Microsoft desktop, or just go through an upgrade, you have to do it for every desktop in the workplace.”

He adds, “The Sun Ray thin-client offers a true low-cost computing alternative providing physical security to our servers, giving us greater access control.” Moreover, the institute has invested in only one site license. This architecture gives the institute a flexibility of adding a tape library when its outgrows its data capacity.

The institute is also seriously considering using Sun Ray thin-clients with a Java-enabled smart card system to give students mobility by letting them lock their work session by pulling out the smart card and start from where they left off by plugging the smart card into another Sun Ray client.

Sun’s new business plans

Sun is finding a huge market opportunity for its Sun Ray thin-clients in new verticals such as manufacturing, banking and financial institutions and call centres, in addition to education and research institutes. Sun believes that the Sun Ray will be an instant hit among call centres.

The strategy behind this low-cost computing solution aligns directly with Sun’s ongoing commitment to reduce cost and complexity and deliver more mobile and secure data. It delivers value to businesses by reducing TCO.

akhtar@expresscomputeronline.com