INDUSTRY

Sun Microsystems Middle East and Africa (MENA) has identified grid computing opportunities, identity management, and data protection as three of the most significant issues facing Lebanon/Jordan's IT staff in 2006. With these trends in mind, Sun is hosting a series of full-day partner training and half-day executive seminars to highlight the ways in which organizations in Lebanon/Jordan can adopt grid computing, enhance their information security, and improve data management, with stops in six countries around the region. "Businesses in Lebanon and Jordan are well on their way into they finalizing their IT agendas for 2006. We're seeing that customer and partners are most concerned about investing in entry-level hardware to build grid environments, protect their critical information, and manage growing stores of data - all in a high-performance, reliable, and cost-effective way," said Bulent Hicsonmetz, Sales Director, Sun Microsystems in the Levant and North Africa. "These executive events for Sun's customers and partners are highlighting the most dynamic technology trends for 2006 and showing firsthand how they can be implemented locally for maximum business impact," he added. Systems showcased will be Sun's next generation AMD Operton-based X64 systems and solutions for building grid environments, as well as a throughput computing update and Sun Solaris demonstration for server consolidation initiatives. Attendees will also receive software solution updates on Sun's identity management solutions and the latest release of the Java Enterprise System. Sun's recent acquisitions of SeeBeyond and StorageTek, and the regional impact of these deals, is set to be another hot topic during the regional events. The Sun one-day executive seminars and partner training will take place in Jordan/Lebanon, in conjunction with Sun partners - Specialised Technical Services (STS) in Jordan and Automation and Computer Technology (ACT) and Omnisystems in Lebanon - on the following dates: 20th March - Partner training in Jordan 21st March - Customer event in Jordan 23rd March - Customer event in Lebanon