Interoperability

For years, Sun has provided user identity interoperability between Solaris, UNIX®, Linux, and Microsoft Active Directory environments. Java System Access Manager, Java System Identity Manager, and Java System Directory Server provide open standards-based identity management features that can help unify even the most challenging heterogeneous environments.

Java System Identity Manager can help automate the process of creating and deleting user accounts when employees are hired and terminated. These can be risky operations because of the dozens of accounts that a single employee might have and the fact that a single error can put enterprise-critical data at risk. Java System Identity Manager can help reduce risk by automatically performing role-based user provisioning, password management, and identity synchronization across Solaris, Linux, Windows, VMS, and mainframe environments. Once user accounts are provisioned, Java System Identity Manager synchronizes password changes across all systems. Fewer passwords to remember means less risk of employees having to write them down where others might see them and automatic password synchronization helps lower the cost of password changes.

Java System Access Manager helps secure access to Web applications within the enterprise and across business-to-business value chains. It provides open standards-based authentication and policy-based authorization with a single unified framework. Through its support of the Liberty Alliance Phase 2 protocols, it can support Web-based single sign-on across a wide range of Web applications, including those hosted on Web and application servers from Sun, Microsoft, BEA, and IBM as well as open source products including Apache and Tomcat.

When applications are built to leverage open standards like the Structured Query Language (SQL), customers benefit from a range of database server choices available to support their applications. Windows applications written using Java technology or the C/C++ programming languages typically use the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) API or a driver supporting the JDBC" API, making it easy to use high-capacity database servers from Sun.

Sun servers are built for scalability, with Sun UltraSPARC processor-based servers capable of growing to meet the most intensive database performance requirements. Customers choosing Sun have their choice of industry leading database management systems such as those from Oracle and Sybase, or they can use open source database software such as MySQL.

Customers continuing to use SQL server can get a performance boost by hosting it on Sun's AMD Opteron processor-based servers and Windows Catalog listed storage systems - both designed to run SQL Server even better.

With scalable database server and storage technology from Sun, customers can consolidate multiple databases onto a single server. This helps reduce costs through greater utilization, fewer systems to manage, and fewer software license fees.

You can use one server platform to support your Solaris, Windows, and Linux applications.

Sun is a one-stop shop for customers who need to run multiple operating systems. With the option to run Solaris, Windows, or Linux software on Sun x64-architecture servers and workstations, customers can use one vendor to meet a wide range of requirements. With certified support for multiple operating systems across the range of AMD Opteron processor powered Sun Fire" servers, customers have the flexibility and agility to deploy their choice of operating system without having to change system platforms as their requirements change. This helps reduce the cost and complexity required to support and manage multiple vendors, helping increase return on investment while reducing risk.

Sun's AMD Opteron processor-based servers and workstations, as well as most of Sun s storage products, have passed Microsoft s stringent compatibility testing suite and are listed in the Windows Catalog. These Sun systems have earned the Designed for Windows certification, demonstrating Sun s commitment to meeting the needs of diverse enterprises.

In addition to Windows certifications, Sun customers have easy online access to download Windows drivers for certified Sun products. Sun is covered by a Microsoft Premier Support Services Agreement, which provides both companies with direct access to engineering support and designates dedicated full-time staff at Microsoft to work exclusively with Sun.

You can use Sun's open standards-based communications and collaboration products while still using your familiar Outlook client software.

The Sun Java Enterprise System provides the core services needed to support a company s operations and its business-critical applications. It is an integrated software system, with messaging, instant messaging, calendaring, release schedule. The single system virtually eliminates versioning problems and inconsistencies typical when combining point products from multiple vendors. Best of all, it incorporates a revolutionary business model. The entire software system can be licensed for unlimited use within an organization for a single low price.

When companies use the combination of the Java System Messaging Server, Java System Calendar Server, and Java System Connector for Microsoft Outlook as alternatives to Exchange Server, they can tap into Sun s UltraSPARC® processor-based servers, which can scale far beyond the limits of today s PC servers. Greater scalability means fewer individual servers and licenses to manage, low cost per mailbox, high reliability, and interoperability with other open standards-based messaging servers.

In environments that include Linux desktop workstations, Novell Evolution, an integrated part of the Java Desktop System, acts as the central point of control for all of a user s communication needs. Its functionality is designed to be similar to Outlook, helping to minimize training and migration costs.

You can develop Web services on the platform of your choice and they can interoperate in heterogeneous environments today.

Sun has a long history of developing and promoting open standards and then competing in the marketplace to provide the best implementation. Nowhere is this philosophy more evident than in its quest to develop open standards for Web services. In this marketplace, Web services can be interoperable from the very beginning offering Sun and Microsoft customers investment protection and greater choice.

Both Sun and Microsoft offer high-quality products to support their customers Web services development. Sun supports Web services standards through its Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) software, while Microsoft supports Web services through its .NET program. With many companies deploying both environments, open standards-based interoperability is key.

Sun supports a high degree of Web services interoperability through the J2EE platform version 1.4. This platform provides a programming model for portable Web services applications and delivers support for the Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) Basic Profile. The WS-I specification increases interoperability of different products through the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Services Description Language (WSDL), and Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) specifications. Sun has worked with Microsoft and others to develop and deliver WS-I testing tools to further increase interoperability.

Sun actively participates with Microsoft in other forums, including the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), where Web services protocols like WS-Addressing are being developed.

You can centralize your computing resources and give users access to Windows applications through zero-administration Sun Ray ultra-thin clients.

One way that Sun and its customers have been able to significantly change their cost equation is by centralizing their computing resources with secure, low cost-per-seat, zero-administration, field-replaceable Sun Ray ultra-thin clients. These products leverage the economies of centrally managed, shared server resources while providing access to enterprise-critical applications. Sun customers have deployed Sun Ray products across a broad range of market segments, including healthcare, secure government, education, and electronic design automation.

Sun Ray ultra-thin clients help customers achieve similar benefits in Windows environments. With Sun servers acting as communication multiplexors, users can access Windows applications through protocols such as: Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Citrix Independent Computing Architecture (ICA), Tarantella Secure Global Desktop.

In addition, users can also access X Window System applications, IBM AS/400 systems, and connect to IBM mainframe environments with 3270/5250 emulation. The Sun Ray server can act as both a file server and client in Windows environments so that users can access all of their files, whether stored on Sun or Windows servers.

You can use one low-cost, full-featured, interoperable, alternative office suite on Solaris, Windows, and Linux platforms? Sun s StarOffice software comes with five core applications: StarOffice Writer for word processing, Calc for spreadsheets, Impress for presentations, Draw for drawing, and Base for database functions. Its open source counterpart, OpenOffice.org, has been downloaded more than 39 million times for use on platforms including Solaris, Windows, Linux, and Apple Mac OS X. StarOffice and OpenOffice.org software Sun has always enabled interoperability. It is part of our legacy and key to our future.

Sun's StarOffice software development group strives to constantly improve interoperability, helping to facilitate migrating from Microsoft Office to StarOffice software. StarOffice software interoperates at the feature level by providing functions similar to the most commonly used Office functions, helping to reduce retraining costs. StarOffice software interoperates with Microsoft Office files by importing and exporting files, including the ability to read and write password-protected Microsoft Word and Excel files. The StarOffice software file format is an open, XML-compliant format that is in the process of standardization by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), a global consortium driving the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. The European Union has endorsed this file format.