At a press conference today, NEC Corporation and Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq:SUNW) today announced an agreement to expand the strategic alliance between the two firms. This expanded alliance plans to create new system solutions, incorporating technology and products from both companies that are scheduled to be made available in Japan and globally.
The strategic alliance will cover a broad range of areas between the two companies including an expansion of the joint systems integration business relationship, development of secure voice and data solutions and enhanced collaboration in the development of middleware software. “NEC started OEMing Sun products in 2000, since then we have continued to broadly develop our partnership,” said Akinobu Kanasugi, president, NEC. “Today’s announcement is about expanding this product based partnership into a strategic systems integration collaboration targeting the global market by developing solutions based on IT and network technologies from both companies.” “Today the Sun and NEC relationship has reached a new level,” said Scott McNealy, Chairman and CEO, Sun Microsystems. “Our visions have always been aligned and now we can say that our products and services offerings are more complimentary than ever, a synergistic partnership from ASICS at the chip level to the middleware layer all the way through systems integration. Customers throughout the world are experiencing the benefits of our joint solutions.”
Key elements of the new alliance include:
- An expanded set of systems integration offerings that the two companies plan to provide including standards-based, highly scalable, secure, mission critical offerings targeting mobile phone carriers and network markets such as telecommunications.
- Plans for both companies to expand support for NEC’s Multimedia Information Platform (NEMIP) solution based on Sun’s Solaris Operating System (OS) platform in the global market including Asia and Europe.
- NEC is increasing its systems integration capability dedicated to the Solaris operating environment in addition to other platform environments and targeting multi-vendor implementations such as server consolidation. Furthermore, NEC will deploy its Open Mission Critical System (OMCS) technology on Sun’s Solaris platform in Japan and other countries.
- Sun is expanding its support structure both in Japan and the United States in order to support this systems integration business expansion.
- Both companies are combining NEC’s IP telephony product, UNIVERGE/SV 7000, and Sun’s Sun Ray ultra-thin client technology into secure solutions.
- NEC is using this architecture as a key component of its customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for next-generation call centers.
- The first reference site for this new solution is Plala Networks, which started its operations in March. This Next Generation Contact Center is expected to be the biggest in Asia with more than 1,000 seats. Sun and NEC plan to jointly promote this solution worldwide as a Sun Ray-based reference platform for joint customers.
- Sun and NEC are jointly investigating technology collaboration for next-generation client architecture definitions for future mobility and security clients based on Sun Ray ultra-thin client and NEC network technology.
- NEC and Sun have concluded integration test and quality verification for key components of their middleware stacks, the NEC “VALUMOware” and Sun Java Enterprise System. NEC’s “WebSAM MCOperation” and “DiosaGlobe MCOne” has been integrated with the Sun Java Enterprise System for operations management and operating platform solutions.
- NEC and Sun have integrated the Sun Java System Access Manager and the Sun Java System Identity Manager software with the NEC Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) products as a systems integration solution for the identity market.
- Both companies are investigating further technology collaboration in the areas of autonomic computing and Web services.
- Both companies intend to expand these middleware collaborations from the Solaris Operating System running on UltraSPARC(R) microprocessors to include the Solaris Operating System on the x86 and x64 platforms.
In order to demonstrate and accelerate the above initiatives, both companies are establishing joint solution teams to execute proof of concepts for customer requirements at NEC’s iBest Solution Center in Mita, Japan, the NEC Broadband Solution Center in Shinagawa, Japan and the Sun iForce (SM) Center in Yoga, Japan. Sun and NEC have collaborated for years, with NEC integrating thousands of systems using the Solaris Operating System over the past five years. In addition, NEC Electronics Ltd. provides system level semiconductor products for Sun.
About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation (Nasdaq: NIPNY) (FTSE: 6701q.l) is one of the world’s leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its diverse and global base of customers. Ranked as one of the world’s top patent-producing companies, NEC delivers tailored solutions in the key fields of computer, networking and electron devices, by integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks, and by providing advanced semiconductor solutions through NEC Electronics Corporation. The NEC Group employs more than 140,000 people worldwide and had net sales of 4,906 billion yen (approx. $47 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 2004. For additional information, please visit the NEC home page at: http://www.nec.com.
NEC’s Multimedia Information Platform (NEMIP) is a mobile communications platform providing Mail, Web Portal, Ring Tones and other type of multimedia services . NEMIP is a proven solution with implementations in more than 8 major mobile carriers.
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 Microsystems K.K. is the Japanese corporation, 100% subsidiary of US headquarters and was established in 1986.
Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Java, , iForce, Sun Ray ,and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.