SAN FRANCISCO — Sun CEO Scott McNealy is hoping people are fed up
enough with viruses, security updates and computer crashes to consider
his Sun Ray vision as an alternative.
As previously reported,
Sun is expected to outline the thin client strategy
this Friday. As a precursor, McNealy said Sun is working on disrupting
the markets with an inexpensive subscription model
“I’m just throwing this out there, but why wouldn’t we do something
like charge $5 per Sun Ray per week? We are already offering CPU cycles
by the hour and gigabyte storage by the month,” McNealy said during
Oracle’s OpenWorld conference here.
With the sale of IBM’s PC division, McNealy and others are sounding off about the
future direction of enterprise and consumer computing.
The outspoken CEO also said Sun is working with 3G carriers and the
major Wi-Fi ISPs, such as AT&T, MCI and Sprint, to design a thin client
laptop version that uses public and subscription networks to access the
same information as the wired ones.
“We are a natural wholesaler for this,” McNealy said. “A long line
carrier could charge customers $4 and offer the complete infrastructure, software and
even support. We get the $1 to supply them with the network. They get $3
to cover their costs and still make money in the process.
Sun is also partnering with Lucent to provide Voice
over IP
landline phones there are in the world.
“If you try this out at our corporate offices, you can take your Java
card out of the machine and walk to another terminal and your phone call
will follow you,” McNealy said.
The benefit of Sun’s thin-client strategy is that the
low-cost, low-energy computers come without hard or floppy disk drives,
CD-ROMs, or embedded software that can become corrupted by viruses or
become obsolete, he continued.
The vision may be gaining momentum. Already more than 30,000 Sun
employees roam from home to office to boardroom with only a smart card
as their entry to a network-based desktop environment. McNealy said the
U.S. Department of Defense has adopted a program to turn more than 80
percent of its desktops into Sun Ray environments by 2007.
McNealy said his Sun Ray vision is also better than most VPN
administration at the desktop, administrators can manage up to 2,000 Sun
Ray clients, and users access their session via a smart card instead of
relying solely on a password.
“It took two or three people about two or three days to update all of
our systems at a cost of about $60,000.
McNealy said the Sun Ray vision is also helpful in reducing headcount
in offices and saving on energy costs, especially in developing nations.
Sun has been working hard to increase the visibility of its Sun Ray
lineup. The company usually pairs the offering with its Java Desktop
System as it looks to convert corporations and governments from their
Windows ways.
McNealy also added that Sun’s thin client also dovetails
nicely with its utility architectures like N1 and its grid computing
partnership with Oracle and others.
“We’ll see grid computing and subscription services take hold in the
same way that the provision of electrical power in this country has
become a utility and the purchasing of cable television service a
subscription,” McNealy said.
