ACADEMIA

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW) today announced that Jini(TM) technology is being successfully applied to help solve the dynamic networking problems of customers in a wide range of emerging and evolving markets. Heartlab, Templar, Valaran, Cysive, and the FETISH Federation are some of the businesses currently using Jini technology to create dynamic networking systems. An example is the Federated European Tourism Information Service Harmonization (FETISH) organization using Jini technology to transform a disparate, fragmented travel market spanning an entire continent into an accessible online community of travel service providers. Another example is Templar Corporation using Jini technology to integrate new data sources into a shared information system used by law enforcement, without needing to bring the system down or interrupt services to clients. Sun Microsystems, the Jini Community(SM) (www.jini.org) and the larger community of Java(TM) technology vendors and users work together to provide the "dynamic" style of network computing, one of many different styles of Java technology-based network computing available to Java technology developers. This unique style of Java network computing is also being successfully integrated with other Java network computing styles, including Java Web Services. Dynamic networking refers to a distributed system's ability to continue to operate while automatically accommodating changes. "Jini technology is a compelling part of the larger Java ecosystem," said Mark Bauhaus, vice president, Java Web Services for Sun Microsystems. "Java developers can use Jini technology in conjunction with other popular development styles to create dynamic network computing systems that enable customers to get to market quickly as well as to deploy and manage new or modified services with no interruption to clients. Sun's strategic focus on innovative technologies like Jini technology helps open new markets by successfully addressing these dynamic networking challenges." In addition, Jini technology is being used by early adopters in emerging markets that include mobile computing, grid computing, telematics, and industrial automation. These customers use Jini technology to help them manage difficult to control operating environments, as well as exploit the unpredictable nature of those environments as a valuable asset. The FETISH project applies Jini technology within a Java Web Service framework to link existing travel services offered by different providers and built on disparate platforms throughout Europe. "Our architecture dramatically cuts down on administration load by acting as a self-contained, decentralized network that continuously adapts to new standards, new services and fluctuating network availability," said Andrea Nicolai, CEO of T6 and project coordinator of FETISH. "It also has self-healing capabilities -- if a software component failed, it would be able to recover itself and continue running." Templar Corporation is also using Jini technology to provide key differentiating value in its Informant product. Deployed today by law enforcement and public safety customers in California, Virginia, Florida, Oregon, and South Carolina, Informant allows cross-jurisdictional information sharing and provides the solution framework for a much broader data-sharing system. "Jini technology provides multiple advantages to us," said Dr. Robert Shore, Chief Scientist at Templar. "First, we realize significant competitive value from our ability to easily add any new data source into a running Informant system without needing to bring the system down or interrupting service to the clients who are using it at the time. Second, Jini technology makes it possible for us to integrate widely diverse data sets quite easily, even though individual data sources may use unique data table formats, query language, data access privileges, and the like."