United States Air Force Collaborates with Sun Microsystems, Inc.

McLean, VA -- April 5, 2005 -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced Headquarters Operations and Sustainment Systems Group, Department of the Air Force is the first Department of Defense organization to completely implement a Java Center of Excellence (JCOE) program, which is designed to provide organizations like the United States Air Force with proven and tested methodologies for Java technology-based application development. Recognizing that Java technologies are the premier platform for developing and deploying secure, scalable and cost effective applications, the United States Air Force worked with Sun for over a year to develop and codify an iterative application development methodology and architecture plan that can be used to streamline future development efforts.

"Our alliance with Sun has helped us better align and capture our processes, which has allowed us to create a more replicable method for developing solutions," says Frank Weber, formerly Executive Director, USAF Standard Systems Group, now, Director, Operations and Sustainment Systems Wing. "Our Java Center of Excellence provides us with a centralized structure that institutionalizes technology, knowledge and skills transfer throughout the organization, increasing our agility while facilitating product and service delivery via the Web. Recognizing the interoperability and modular construction enabled by the Java platform, we view these capabalities as critical to our long-term success."

Staffed by Sun-trained Air Force personnel, the Air Force's JCOE offers numerous tools designed to advance application development, including:

• A Master Architecture Plan, which generates a consistent vision for application interoperability with an overriding objective of transforming the overall computing infrastructure into a highly flexible, service-oriented, information utility model.
• An enterprise Java platform (known as Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition, J2EE) Reference Architecture that serves as a tested roadmap for integrating relevant technologies and further leveraging them on a reusable basis in the deployment of additional system functionality; the Management Evaluation System tutorial.
• An ongoing training and collaborative mentoring program, which has resulted in measurable growth among Airmen in various IT organizations as well as a considerable uptick in reported job satisfaction.

Adds Weber, "We've invested significant time and effort with our partners from Sun in studying service-oriented architecture so that we can continue to advance our technological capabilities in order to more quickly and cost-effectively accommodate the escalating technology demands of our Netcentric Defense programs."

"The benefit of the JCOE program is that it helps government agencies take better advantage of one of the world's most scalable,secure and proven application platforms in order to reduce costs and risk while improving time-to-service metrics," said Clark Masters, Executive Vice President of Sun Microsystems's Global Industry Sales and President of Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc. "By enhancing the Air Force's existing Java technology expertise with additional best practices and tested methodologies, we're helping the Air Force greatly expand its overall IT capabilities with additional resources for architecting, building and deploying mission-critical applications using Java technology that ultimately streamline, hasten and simplify global deployment."

Please visit www.sun.com/service/sunps/jdc/excellence.html for more information on the Java Center of Excellence service.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Java, J2EE, and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.