Sun Microsystems and Samsung SDS have joined forces to offer a bundled enterprise messaging solution that is a viable, scalable and cost-effective groupware product for organisations, from SMEs to corporates.
The solution is based on Sun's entry-level server, the LX50, and Samsung SDS' Samsung Contact messaging platform. Launched in 2002, the LX50 is pre-integrated with either Linux or the Solaris Operating Environment and bundled with the SunONE software stack and Java. Samsung Contact is based on the core of HP's OpenMail technology.
Jeremy Diamond of Datrix Solutions, the South African distributor of Samsung Contact, confirms the new solution is competitively priced in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO) of both the software and the hardware.
"Research figures from Ferris put the overall TCO for implementation of Microsoft Exchange at around $13 per seat per month. The cost of implementation of Samsung Contact, on the other hand, has been estimated at between $7 and $8 per seat, approximately half!
"In addition, Samsung Contact is scalable, reliable, functionality rich and interfaces seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook. In short, it provides a roadmap to such features as a unified message store, message delivery across a myriad of devices (telephone, fax, PC, the Web or wireless) and established Enterprise Java and Extensible Markup Language (XML) technologies," he says.
This is borne out by analysis undertaken by research firm Aberdeen which concludes that "based on the market's demand for low-cost and reduced complexity, the goal of unified communications (UC) via the Contact approach is of greater value than such alternatives as the immature Microsoft .Net Framework and the pending collision between Lotus domino and IBM's WebSphere".
"Those seeking to migrate or change messaging systems now would do well to evaluate the Samsung Contact system before opening their wallets with little visibility into the total cost that the framework vendors will demand of them over the next three to five years," Aberdeen says.
The goal of UC is fast becoming a reality, says Diamond. Samsung SDS has partnered with Yomi, a Scandinavian UC specialist, to develop the necessary plug-ins which will be rolled out to local Samsung Contact users in the next six months or so.
"The opportunity we see in the local market is to take this bundled solution to companies that are Microsoft Exchange 5.5 clients who are faced with the dilemma of upgrading to 2000 or are looking for an alternative.
"We will also be targeting companies that are running e-mail servers that offer limited functionality. The solution is one that companies, especially in the SME sector, can both afford and grow with," he says.
Comments Sun business development manager, Duncan Peruch: "Reinforcing the TCO advantage is the fact that we are offering both Linux and Solaris versions of the platform. In both cases the initial purchase outlay is very cost competitive, but of greater value is the ongoing maintenance model.
"Neither version attracts significant costs from a monthly maintenance point of view and return on investment is easy to achieve. Once established these boxes can run for many years requiring little or no further investment.
"In addition, from a systems administration point of view, the tools available with Solaris and Linux are fast becoming as feature-rich and easy to use as anything in the WinTel environment," he says.
Distribution of the bundled solution will be indirect through a channel drawn largely from existing Sun resellers as well as those recruited through Orcom, the company's channel development partner.
Says Peruch: "Sun's business has traditionally been done through large distributors, an approach which has been very successful for us in the data centre environment. Now that we are looking to extend our value proposition into the smaller and more volume-oriented products we need to adopt a different approach to market.
"This has led to the company instituting the channel development concept globally. In SA our channel development partner Orcom's sole focus is on the development of the Sun channel."
"Basically, it can be seen as an outsourcing model where we empower our partner to supply all the resources to support the channel. This means Orcom is set up to support a multitude of new resellers as well as to develop solutions-oriented partners as opposed to our partners in the data centre environment."
Concludes Peruch: "Microsoft has enjoyed a virtually unchallenged role for years, but now, as the community begins to understand the advantages of alternatives - open source, shareware and Linux - there is a growing momentum for change.
"We at Sun believe that initiatives such as this one with Samsung SDS, will bring us foremost in customers' minds as the leaders of that change."
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