Sun projects Ray to replace PCs

Sun Microsystems unveiled its Sun Ray Hot Desk Architecture in New York last week, which it claimed would cut organisations' costs and offer Sun resellers a significant value add opportunity.

The Sun Ray 1 appliance includes a smart card reader to allow users to access applications and personal documents that reside on the server from any Sun Ray device.

The vendor claimed the move from desktop to server would allow companies to slash 80 per cent off total ownership costs through zero desktop administration.

Craig Churchill, desktop products manager at Sun UK, said: "It's like the telephone model - if it breaks, you simply unplug it and plug in another. Administration, upgrades and applications are all dealt with from the server."

He added that the telephone model would be extended to pricing with the units available for rental for between £10 and £15, and up to £30 per month if a customer wanted a complete service. The appliance costs £360 to buy.

Duane Northcutt, chief scientist at the information appliance Webtop group at Sun, said: "This is the end point to how thin computing could be. There is nothing left on the desktop."

Churchill added: "The whole package will offer significant savings over Windows terminals, but this is not a PC killer. However, it will offer ASPs and resellers many value add opportunities."

The Sun Ray system will be targeted at call centres, government, education and the back offices of financial services organisations. The architecture will also be tweaked for the consumer and Soho markets.

Churchill said: "We have been training resellers in Sun Ray for the past six months. They were sceptical, but they warmed to it quickly."

Sun claimed the Sun Ray enterprise server will handle up to 50 simultaneous users per CPU.

- IBM has also re-joined the thin-client fray, with the launch last week of two Network Stations, the 2200 and 2800.