Sun in Financial Services

Sun's value proposition in financial services extends from our operationally resilient hardware and operating systems, through Java technology-based middleware, to a wide range of business functionality provided by an ecosystem of partners.

Sun Microsystems has a long track record in financial services. It dates back to the 1980s, when traders on Wall Street embraced the company's high-powered UNIX workstations and—as video switching gave way to digital feeds, and real-time market data drove volumes through the roof—Sun technology helped revolutionize the trading floor.

With the rise of the Internet, Sun's slogan, "The Network Is the Computer," came into its own. Since the mid-1990s, we have been working with financial firms to harness the power of Java technologies, XML, and networking based on the Internet protocol in flexible infrastructures that can evolve cost-effectively with firms' expanding and shifting needs.

Sun's value proposition centers on choice. It begins with our robust hardware platforms and extends through a range of operating system choices (the Solaris 10 OS, the Solaris OS x86 Platform, and Linux) and Java Enterprise System middleware (including security, integration, portal, Web, and application server software) to the unique breadth of business functionality provided by our partner community. At each level, solutions can be compiled according to customer requirements, and then architected by Sun engineers to ensure an optimum mix, not only in terms of cost and complexity, but also from the standpoint of operational risk.

A decade of deregulation has changed the financial services landscape, fueling globalization and consolidation, and intensifying competition. Legislation introduced over the past three years has forced regulatory compliance to the top of the agenda for most CIOs. They are also under pressure to manage IT in a way that can help them regain their customers' trust in the wake of the accounting scandals. Meanwhile, risk management grows ever more complex.

Sun is committed to helping financial services companies address these issues. Our solutions are designed to help firms accelerate time to market, minimize risk, reduce costs and complexity, and improve customer relationship management across four sectors of the market:

Capital Markets
Sun addresses the complete securities transaction life cycle, covering buy side, sell side, execution, and settlement. Our focus is on increasing automation across the entire value chain; operational, credit, and market risk management; and the evolving trade execution landscape. Over the past year, we have worked to build compliance into the DNA of our approach to the market, developing, for example, SunTone Risk Management (RM), a unique methodology for assessing technology-related operational risk.

Corporate Banking
Sun's focuses include cash management and inter-bank payments—and the extension of these services to banks' corporate customers—payments infrastructure, business process automation, regulatory compliance, and Web-based trade facilitation.

Retail Banking
In the retail banking sector, Sun's innovative, open-platform solutions address core banking, branch renewal, channel integration, and e-payments. The underlying aim is to help banks lower total cost of ownership, increase system security, and simplify operations.

Insurance
Sun applies world-class methodologies to deliver on operational excellence for life, property and casualty, and reinsurance carriers and brokers. Sun works with strategic partners to deliver a choice of solutions that can be deployed on a variety of architectures to help carriers reduce costs, position for growth, and become more adaptable to change.

Partnering for Success

Through our iForce alliances, Sun provides customers in the financial services industry with reliable, mission-critical applications, together with worldwide service and support. We build on new technologies, Sun Java System software, and the ISV solutions to offer a scalable foundation for integrating business processes, content services, and industry solutions, using both traditional and Web-based applications.

Our ISV partners have access to tools such as Sun Studio and Sun Java Studio, an integrated offering geared toward the rapid development of applications and Web services across different platform and environments. Meanwhile, Sun Studio makes it easy to get outstanding performance when developing in C, C++, or Fortran for the Solaris or Linux operating systems. Sun provides the necessary environment for developing scalable 32-bit and 64-bit applications on systems based on SPARC, Xeon, and AMD processors.

With Sun's solutions, financial firms can integrate systems, data, networks, and legacy applications in order to create a single view of a customer, a portfolio, or a market. They can reliably and securely maintain, track, and deliver timely and accurate information to customers, financial partners, and, when necessary, regulators—all at a lower total cost of ownership.