Advertisment

Fire the only respite for Sun

author-image
CIOL Bureau
New Update

When will companies resume spending on computer network infrastructure

technology? Sun Microsystems, one of the leading companies in the field, does

not know. Things are just too uncertain in the aftermath of the terrorist

attacks, which came at a time when the US economy was already bailing water.

Advertisment

"It may take six months, it may take a year. It may take longer,"

said Sun President Edward Zander. Zander said the attacks halted almost all

business travel in the United States for an entire week. Instead of flying to

customers, Zander found himself driving to them over long distances. "I

started making calls in California that I could drive to and even out there

2,000 miles away. A lot of those companies are multinationals and many were

resizing their own businesses. It's a difficult environment to ask for purchase

orders right now," Zander said.

The attacks will cost Sun dearly as the company counted on a strong rebound

in September from the traditionally weak July and August months. "We always

count on a big September," said Sun CEO Scott McNealy said. "It was

not helpful economically to have the week the US stand still during the

month."

McNealy added he was confident that in the long run technology spending will

resume, following a substantial slowdown over the past year that has sent the

entire tech sector into a spin. "The traditional players we've been selling

to in the past are going to come back."

McNealy said that while business conditions are poor, he is pleased the

company was able to launch its new Sun Fire 15000 server that will enable the

company to get into a new competitive brawl with IBM which is preparing for the

release of the new "Regatta" processor in October and will offer

powerful servers built around the chip.

tech-news