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.
"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.