Sun Ray appliances are designed for the enterprise

Internet Strategies for Education Markets: The Heller Report, August, 2000

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) has recently introduced two new products in its line of Sun Ray enterprise appliances. For nearly a year, Sun has been selling the Sun Ray 1 enterprise appliance, a monitorless, book-sized device that accesses either Internet sources or other applications on an intranet. The new releases include the Sun Ray 100, which includes all components of the device in a 17-inch CRT display and the Sun Ray 150, which is a 15-inch flat panel display.

The Sun Rays are a part of an enterprise solution in which all applications and files reside on intranet servers, and users access them through the appliances. Lowering total cost of ownership by centralizing all administrative tasks is the key benefit of the system. While some schools hope to employ older computers as thin-clients for such tasks, Brian Healy, group marketing manager, information appliance group, says that repurposing older machines will likely become the proverbial albatross necklace for IT managers and users. Sun Rays, he says, do not need to be updated or maintained.

The Sun Ray system also includes features such as "hot desking," in which a user can leave one terminal and instantly access their computing session elsewhere in the system. Hot desking can be facilitated by a smart card system that eliminates the need for users to log on, and the Sun Rays have a slot in the front for cards. The new Sun Rays, which look like monitors without a hard drive, also have the benefit of taking limited desk space. The Sun Ray 150 can even mount to the wall.

When purchased as a bundle with multiple machines and a server, the Sun Ray 1 costs $299, the Sun Ray 100 is $549 and the Sun Ray 150 is $1299.

Computer industry semantics would also permit the Sun Rays to be called Internet appliances. Healy says that one school implementation of the system uses it only to access resources via The Learningstation.com, technically making the devices Internet appliances. Even so, the more common usage is for the enterprise. These machines depend on the broadband pipe of a network and cannot be taken home and plugged into the web.

Sun Ray Education Markets

Healy says schools are a key market for Sun Ray 1, with use split evenly between K-12 and higher education. Currently, says Healy, nearly 200 institutions are using the devices. Sun's most recent announcements of school customers include large deployments of Sun Ray 1 enterprise appliances: schools in Moosejaw and Northbattlefield, Saskatchewan are installing 3,300 devices in 42 schools; the program called Computers in Amsterdam Primary Schools (CIAO) will use 1,000 Sun Ray I enterprise appliances across Amsterdam; and 30 primary and secondary schools in Maui will deploy 1,400 devices. Other markets include government, call centers/customer service departments and hotels wanting to provide Internet access from rooms.

As Sun continues its Sun Ray program, Healy anticipates adding software features. Recently, for example, Sun added the ability to group servers for an even higher degree of reliability. If one server goes down, which Healy adds is a rarity, another server can automatically pick up its tasks. Healy also expects broadband implementations of the devices as wider pipes reach more audiences. The technology is likely to end up in consumer devices, says Healy, perhaps in something made by Sun or perhaps with another company licensing the technology.

The Software Component

In order to address school-to-home computing needs, Sun is encouraging schools to use web-based resources that students can access away from school. Sun's commitment to having teachers and students leverage the value of the Internet through portal computing is pervasive. The company was a founding member of and the impetus for Schooltone; Sun has created the Education Service Provider program as a distribution channel for web-based content developers (see ISEM, Dec, 1999); and the company is working on a web site to list all educational web resources along with their payment models (if any) and other information about them. Sun recently formalized a distinct division for education, split between K-12 and higher education, and that group is actively working to identify partners with web-based learning content and tools, says Robert Iskander. Iskander, who heads the K-12 component of the new division, says Sun is also seeking partners to create a web-based infrastructure for teacher professional development.

Additionally, Sun makes its StarOffice, web-based, productivity tools available for free. Soon, says Iskander, the company will begin promoting a Star Office Portal, an ASP offering that lets other portals license the applications and make them available to users for free. Star Office includes applications such as word processing, presentations, databases, drawing, scheduling, email, discussion areas and other tools.

Sun is also actively working to create a more viable market for content developers, says Iskander. Sun's John Gage, chief science officer, is a member of the Web Based Education Commission; and representatives of the company regularly work with the US Department of Education and governors of various states to encourage them to establish funding for web-based resources.