Sun blocks own releases

Sun Microsystems' year 2000 group has blocked three of the company's product launches in the last 10 months because they were not millennium-compliant.

The manufacturer has a policy of treating the year 2000 problem as a non-profit making exercise, according to Tony Hampel, director of Sun's year 2000 office, and is concentrating on maintaining good relations with customers. This is connected to Sun's stringent in-house compliance policies.

In an exclusive interview with PC Dealer, Hampel said: 'We physically held back products because they did not meet our stated compliance requirement, which came into force on 1 May 1997. In each situation, a third party's technology was in the product.'

The three unnamed products were 'in the layered software areas' rather than hardware products or operating systems, Hampel said, and the third parties involved were partner companies or acquisitions.

Hampel said Sun's sales staff do not have sales targets on year 2000 issues but work with Sun's specialists to help educate customers and keep good relations with them.

The tasks involved are so big that Hampel even admitted Sun will probably fail in its bid to make all its 700 in-house products year 2000-compliant by the end of 1998.