JavaStation by Bill Petro
3..., 2..., 1..., LAUNCH! The last week of October saw the launch of Sun's Network Computer -- the JavaStation, as part of Java Enterprise Solutions. The New York launch was the first of many similar events world-wide. In my 10 years at Sun, I've seen a lot of launches, but this was perhaps the most exciting and most important. I gave the keynote address in Moscow and Dubai, and I'll describe the events below. There has been a great deal of anticipation about Sun's NC (network computer), particularly because it is a sub-kilo desktop (less than US$1,000). But this was not just an NC launch, indeed, that was just the tip of the iceberg. The Java Enterprise Solutions launch announced a complete end-to-end Java computing story that included Java business applications, Java middleware, Java management tools, and Java servers. A unique set of product offerings! The JavaStation was quite a kick to demo. People were amazed that it has only 7 connectors in the back, and really only 5 are needed to get it running. There are connectors for monitor, keyboard, mouse, network, and power. Additionally, there is an audio connector for earphones and a serial connector. There are no slots, no floppy drive, no CD, no hard drive. With no rotating media there are no moving parts to go out. The first version does have a fan for the internal power supply, the next one doesn't have an internal power supply and is cooled by convection. So the JavaStation is inexpensive to buy, and without internal data (it's all on the network... which is the computer) it is a Field Replaceable Unit. Unlike a PC, if anything goes wrong with the JavaStation hardware, you can swap it out, turn the replacement on, and resume right where you left off. But the real payoff is that is the JavaStation is a "Zero Administration Client." This means that at the desktop, there's no end-user administration involved other than plugging it in and turning it on. All data, including applications and OS are on the network servers and with centralized data comes centralized administration. A simple graphical tool adds the JavaStation to the network. Gartner Group estimates that the annual cost of owning and maintaining a PC desktop is US$11,900. But a JavaStation could reduce that number to as little as US$2,500 annually. Moscow: That could make a big difference in a lot of places. In Moscow, for example, where budgets are tight, Java Computing is a welcome sight. The Moscow launch was held at Ostainkino Television Center. We had 300 decision makers there. Indeed, following my talk I found myself sitting next to a military officer with three stars on his shoulder. I had an opportunity to illustrate some of points of my talk with recent news items from the Russian newspapers. One of JavaStation Early Access customer was FedEx, who had just announced a new direct route from New York to Moscow. The explosive growth of the Internet was illustrated by the news that the University of Vladivostok now has an Internet connection, making it the third university in Russia to be connected. After the talks I showed some demos on the JavaStation, especially the Solstice Workshop (Java Management API) one. This one has a high "coolness" factor, not only because it is web-based system administration, but because about 50 enterprise management ISVs have signed up to write Java-based management tools that will plug into this heterogeneous framework. The reception following was held 337 meters higher in the famous Ostainkino Tower, second in height only to the tower in Toronto. It looks remarkably like a rocket ship from a 1960s science fiction movie and the elevator, which ascended at 7 meters per second, was like an airlock. Inside, I answered questions from partners, developers, and the Russian PC Week magazine. Dubai, United Arab Emirates at GITEX'96 The 16th Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) with 67,000 attendees is the largest IT exhibition in the Middle East and the 5th largest in the world. GITEX'96 is like a combined COMDEX/PC Expo/Consumer Electronics Show. There were more than 400 exhibitors from 29 countries. The event was held at the modern Dubai World Trade Center and covered 33,000 square meters of space. The Sun booth had a number of JavaStations and demo kiosks showing various Java products. We also had a workstation/PC/Mac/JavaStation kiosk showing how Java runs the same on all. We had a corner of our booth dedicated to the half a dozen talks done each day. During the four-day event I gave two to three talks a day on Java Computing, a general Java language talk, and an Intranet talk. Java Computing has great application in the Middle East in general and the United Arab Emirates in particular. With a very large local expatriate population, IT expertise is expensive and limited. Experts have to be brought in from outside and are only available for a few years. Because the Java Computing model lowers the bar on administrative overhead, and levels the playing field for application development and distribution, it can have immediate cost paybacks. The Middle East IT Market: The Middle East IT sector is estimated to be more than US$ 1.5 billion with an annual growth of 12-15%. Saudi Arabia alone represents 55% of this figure. The introduction of Internet usage in the Middle East (Sun has most of the local telcos) everywhere except Saudi Arabia (which only has Compuserve access at 2400 baud) is expected to drive the IT market even more. At the same time, the Dubai government has announced a plan to further establish the Emirates as the regional hub for the IT and computer industry by attracting international computer and high tech companies to invest in the Free Zone Trade and Technology Park which is being established within the Dubai International Airport Complex. The Event: The show was inaugurated, as is not unusual in the United Arab Emirates, by one of the rulers, in this case by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance and Industry. All the major world computer companies had large booths and there was a hall dedicated to Oracle Open World partner kiosks. There was another hall sponsoring companies from the European Union and the Middle East. There was a whole hall dedicated to cellular phones, PDAs, cables, etc. In the main two halls were areas for graphics, printing, and other I/O. Computer Shopper: I dropped by for a quick tour of the companion retail exhibition next door, the Computer Shopper. Not only was it bizarre, it was a bazaar, a veritable cornucopia of computer contraptions and components... from paper supplies, to peripherals, to games, Timex data watches, and digital cameras like Kodak and Casio. Vendors were competing for customers via sensory assault using both extremes of the sonic and electromagnetic spectrum. The Good News: The "Arabian Computer News" Reader Awards were held during the event. Sun won the Best Engineering Workstation award. Sun also won three other awards for midrange system reliability, engineering workstation reliability, and engineering workstation price/performance. ______________________________________________________________________