Give Schools A Choice
Sun Demonstrates its Vision for the Education Market at the Annual Worldwide
Education and Research Conference (WWERC)
February 24, 2003 - As schools today are faced with increasingly restrictive
budgets, the impact of technology on advancing the student learning
environment
should not be jeopardized. In an effort to provide a network
computing model for
schools at a price they can afford, Sun is committed to delivering innovative
and open technology solutions, while freeing schools across the globe of
restrictive costs and proprietary technologies.
Sun is a leading provider of open network computing solutions to
K-12 education
and to colleges and universities around the world. In fact, not only has Sun
donated more than $6 billion worth of its StarOffice productivity suite to
nearly 100 schools districts, universities and ministries of education in 14
countries, Sun technology is also powering research and high-performance
computing systems, campus administration, digital libraries and student
instruction systems of some of the world's leading academic institutions,
including, Columbia University, University of Tokyo and New York University.
This week at the WWERC in San Francisco, Sun builds on this history of
innovation and goodwill in the education market with new discounts, new
solutions and customers, new Sun Centers of Excellence, and new offerings in
support and training.
According to Kim Jones, vice president, Global Education and Research for Sun,
"It's long been our goal to provide the education market with the
tools students
need to thrive in the academic environment, while giving them the training and
experience they need to be productive contributors in the global workforce as
well. If schools' budgets continue to be cut as a result of
unfortunate economic
times and if some technology vendors continue to put a strangle hold
on schools
with their expensive licensing deals, it's the students who will suffer in the
long run. Therefore, Sun remains committed to ensuring that
technology is not a
forgotten line item on the budget and to giving customers a choice via open
standards-based technology solutions, no-cost licenses, major discounts, and
training and support."
"In addition, we are highly focused on ensuring that meaningful research
continues in our academic institutions and therefore we're working
closely with
our partners to enable higher education to conduct its work and
research faster,
better and more efficiently via innovative technology solutions that offer a
lower total cost of ownership. Our announcements today at the WWERC
demonstrate
our efforts to give the education community a break, while giving them a
choice."
Sun Offers $1+ Billion in Software, Support and Training to the Education
Community
One of the most compelling offerings from Sun is the Sun EduSoft Portfolio, a
comprehensive software, support and training offering that provides access to
Sun's broad range of software technologies with no-cost licenses for education
and research institutions. Valued at more than 1.2 billion, academic and
research communities will benefit from reduced complexity and cost
in deploying
campus-wide Web services through this single, simplified master
software license
to the education market.
Additionally, institutions benefit from Sun's aggressive discounts for support
services, as well as free Web-based training curriculum on major Sun software
technologies for qualified institutions. The Sun EduSoft Portfolio is designed
to help schools reduce their total cost of ownership by enabling them to
evaluate the software in their own environment, helping them to cut down
significantly on the cost barriers to their adoption of new technologies.
Sun Stays True to Its Roots in Academia
While Sun continues to donate a great amount of software and deliver the price
breaks that will keep the latest advancements in technology in the hands of
students around the world, Sun's education team is also busy fostering
innovation in the campus research environment - a place from which Sun was
hatched just over 20 years ago - via its work with partners and
through several
important education initiatives.
Sun believes that the more the technology industry supports the education
community, the more society will get back in the long run - whether
it's through
more productive citizens or through a new scientific discovery. Each of the
announcements delivered at the WWERC demonstrate Sun's vision for enabling
academic institutions to benefit from the power of the network, regardless of
their financial constraints.
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