IT Market Expert Predicts Sun Microsystems Will Be a Leader in Internet Applications Hosting

Business Wire, May 10, 1999

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 10, 1999--

Summit Strategies' Tom Kucharvy Says Odds Favor Sun Establishing

Itself as a Leader in Portal-Based-Computing

Sun Microsystems is poised to be a leading vendor in the emerging Internet applications hosting (IAH) market, according to Tom Kucharvy, president of Summit Strategies, Inc., a Boston-based market strategy and consulting firm for the technology and communication industries. Labeled portal-based computing by Sun, IAH is the rapidly accelerating trend of renting business applications and tools over the Web. Big-name vendors vying with Sun to dominate the IAH market include Microsoft, IBM, Compaq Computer, and Oracle.

"Sun Microsystems has identified portal-based computing as its overarching vision and service providers-including Internet service providers and application service providers-as a core market," said Kucharvy. "The company is actively trying to create a post-PC computing era in which Windows-based PCs are just one of many ways people access portal-based computing both at work and at home. In fact, Sun believes Windows-based PCs will rapidly be outnumbered by network computers, kiosks, set-top boxes, smart phones, energy- management systems and other mechanisms that use portal-based computing."

"Sun is adapting its product, service and marketing strategies to drive this vision and establish itself as a leading vendor in this market," added Kucharvy. "I believe Sun is well positioned to succeed."

Summit Strategies predicted last December that IAH will be the single, most-profound opportunity for change in the IT market in 1999, so the company's analysts are closely watching developments in the IAH arena. Kucharvy's analysis of Sun's approach to IAH is contained in a just-released report entitled "Sun Builds a Strategy for Its Internet-Computing Vision."

According to Kucharvy, Sun is acting in five areas to make its portal-based-computing vision a reality: client devices, servers, software/middleware/applications, services and marketing/sales. "While devoting a lot of energy to IAH, Sun is also keeping this new market in perspective because service providers currently represent only a small percentage of Sun's sales," Kucharvy said. "No matter how aggressively Sun promotes or positions itself in this new market, it cannot take its eye off the markets that currently pay the bills and fuel the company's already strong growth rates."