Sun Microsystems' e-business systems and network computing infrastructure

Sun Microsystems

Economic and Market Analysis

Globalization

Industry Analysis

Company Analysis

E-Business (Sun Microsystems)

Technology has become king. We must consider just how many people out there today can no longer live without music downloads or online bargain shopping, email or chat. The internet is shaping our future thru e-business ventures, websites like KaZaA and eBay and behind all of this is Sun Microsystems, Inc. The future of information technology will be directed by e-marketing and E-businesses as companies use these techniques to better themselves. Cisco Systems is a partner with Sun in many situations including many B2B and b2c collaborations and they see the future as a combination of e-business solutions such as "...customer communications, branding and relationship-building efforts, loyalty and retention programs, and more - all conducted over the Internet. Much more than creating a Web site, e-business focuses more on communicating online, using a customer-directed dialogue with your company to find new prospects, increasing loyalty and making it easier for your customers to do business with you. In short, we define e-business as all the things your business does online to find, attract, win, and keep customers." (Cisco Systems, 2005)

This report therefore represents an E-Business System Report on Sun Microsystems, Inc. The focus is to provide an introduction into the company and there use of E-Business systems. The report aims to offer insights into the E-business system by identifying various components such as the Internet, intranets, extranets, and electronic commerce as well as inputs, processing, outputs, storage, and control methods currently used. The report will also attempt to provide some background into the use of specific hardware, software, networks, and people needed to make the process work as well as some data and information products the company produces, files and databases accessed and maintained and the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. By efficiency, the report hones in on whether of not the process does the job right and how well the E-business systems are organized.

E-Business (Sun Microsystems)

Yahoo Finance)

Work Sample

Whatever definition is used when referring to e-business solutions, the original principals of business still apply. The goal is usually reducing costs and increasing sales and thus being profitable. There are some obvious differences between business and e-business and the main distinction is that the original business world relied on traditional communication outlets and sources. E-business on the other hand incorporates newer mediums such as the Internet, email and the World Wide Web. Because of these technically advanced sources, e-business is a much less costly process and new and old businesses alike have embraced this new set of business opportunities. Sun Microsystems provides the most efficient and technically advanced solutions available in this area of the business community.

Sun and their E-business efforts offer tangible advantages and alternatives that are very accurate and can be easily measured such as completely new and unique interactive options that were not possible through traditional means. Although Sun works in all aspects of the business community, the realm of education can be sited as an example of being greatly enhanced by Suns' ability to increase use of Internet, intranets, extranets, and electronic commerce as well as inputs, processing, outputs, storage, and control methods. "Sun is delivering on its low-cost computing strategy for Education, providing the best of enterprise value, while ensuring Education and Research institutions have access to worldwide services and support; the reliability, availability and serviceability of sophisticated enterprise-class solutions; and the security and peace of mind of mission-critical technologies." (Sun Microsystems, Inc.) key aspect of any business is to drive down operational costs and to sustain long-term competitive advantages in their markets. "For it organizations with large investments in mainframes, this is an increasing challenge. With no real competitors left in the mainframe server business, the cost of the associated hardware and software licenses continue their rapid rate of increase." (Sun Microsystems, Inc.) the mainframe-based businesses today are all trying to quickly convert to more Sun Microsystems like approaches to computerizing. When Sun creates products and services like the Mainframe Affinity Program, it is clear they are in tune with the needs of the business world. "Through the Mainframe Affinity Program, Sun offers products, tools, partnerships and services that help enable you to interoperate with, rehost or replace mainframe applications on more cost-efficient, open platforms - often at equal or greater levels of performance, flexibility and scalability. Sun's services experts, teaming with partners, put technology and proven services methodologies to work to help you meet your migration needs, including high reliability, cost-effectiveness, operational optimization, business agility, and innovation adoption. Sun mainframe rehosting solutions help enable you to reuse your mainframe applications and data files on high performance, high availability Sun servers and to redefine total cost of ownership across your it organization, resulting in up to 70% cost savings." (Sun Microsystems, Inc.)

Thus, Sun offers many e-business solutions. "In 1998, WorldCom merged with MCI, the second largest long-distance company in the U.S. In late 2000, WorldCom purchased Digex to expand its global Web hosting capabilities. The company was undergoing tremendous organizational change while expanding the types of services it delivered. Meanwhile, WorldCom was struggling to keep up with rapidly evolving technology." (World Com Inc.)

Sun's e-business solutions in this case were instrumental at reducing the blurred distinctions between voice and data services. The key was that Suns process was highly efficient and reliable and therefore solved many concerns through "improved manageability of networks by integrating disparate legacy systems and new Internet-based initiatives, thereby improving network management and facilitating the convergence of voice and data networks; reduced costs of ownership and improved efficiencies by managing both legacy and IP networks in the same way, thus avoiding redundancy in staff while improving overall productivity; enhanced quality-of-service requirements, allowing WorldCom to scale its growing networking customer base reliably, with high availability and security by implementing." (World Com Inc.)

WorldCom was said to have realized a significant impact on their business by implementing a complete Sun e-business solution process. For example, Internet access market grew from $7.9 billion in 2000 to well over $16 billion this year and even with some declines in overall bandwidth prices, the market still has been forecast to grow at a pace of sixteen percent over the course of the next five-year period. "The Web hosting services market is one of the most rapidly growing segments of the it industry and the Internet economy in general. Web hosting is a core component of this economy because, in many respects, hosting is its platform or foundation." (World Com Inc.)

Conclusion

In conclusion, by all apparent outcomes in the industry, the consensus seems to be that Sun offers an efficient process that gets the job right and their overall E-business system as demonstrated in the educational arena and through the highly successful outcomes at WorldCom, the process is well organized and cost effective. Like many aspects of the computing industry, product and cost requirements are relative to each individual requirement. A mom and pop shop will have very different needs than WorldCom, but the key is that the e-business solutions offered by Sun are effective and that employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders and end users are satisfied. There is no doubt that Sun as an organization aim to meet customer expectations and that the Sun Microsystems e-business solution can enhance any business. "We engineer radical technology solutions that solve impossible problems for businesses, government, and institutions." (Sun Microsystems, Inc.)