Oracle and Sun Microsystems have demonstrated their common technology vision at a symposium at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Oracle's director of server technologies marketing, Stephen Faris, took part in the event. Sun had representatives from the hardware division of Sun Microsystems and from SunSoft. Oracle and Sun have been spearheading the move to run the NC or thin-client on high-speed networks as a cheap alternative to the PC. The magic phrase the companies used at last week's event was 'the cost of ownership'. Both back the Gartner Group's highly publicised paper on the cost of keeping a PC, which was said to be about US$12,000 a year. 'Oracle and Sun have got together to do a business plan in the Internet/intranet space in Asia-Pacific,' Mr Faris said. 'It is not exclusive but it allows each to bring something to the table. Oracle brings enterprise presence and applications, Sun brings its Internet site presence.' Sun also brings its Java programming language. One problem Mr Faris highlighted was the need for the NC to develop as a different model from the one in use at present. 'The Web-based model runs on an application server. Applications that were written for client/server need to change. One excellent example is in the area of human resources.' In many companies, the computer systems used for human resources are both complex and old. With the new NC model, things could be much simpler. One problem has been the idea that the NC would not be accepted in the business world. That, according to Oracle's marketing manager in Hong Kong, Bob Carlston, is not true. Mr Carlston quoted a recent report by the Yankee Group that discovered 17 per cent of Fortune 100 companies were about to invest substantial sums of money next year in the network computer and found 65 per cent of the same group would be doing the same in the following year. This, he said, proved that the idea of the NC was being taken seriously. Mr Carlston said eight-year-old children who played with simple devices without thinking about the interface would demand the same when they grew up and went to work. Simplicity, not complexity, was the name of the game, he said. Sun's sales director Hong Kong, Danny Tam, said: 'I talked to a couple of customers who want to know how to migrate. Sun and Oracle have been thinking about this.' Mr Carlston said there was great interest in the NC idea from many sides. It was necessary, he said, to put the entire package together with care. 'Lots of people are buying [NCs]. We just want to make sure they do it right.' 'Doing it right' means thinking through all aspects of the hardware and software and answering specific needs. This is what Oracle and Sun together claim they are able to provide.
