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Sun Powers Norwegian Government SiteBy Justin Lee, theWHIR.com
February 23, 2007 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Effective communication between a government and its citizens is an essential component of any country in establishing and maintaining order.
Technology has undoubtedly improved on this previous communicational obstacle, allowing citizens to access information about many provincial and federal issues.
The Norwegian government recently analyzed several solutions that would be able to provide the country's citizens with Web-based access and support for all government services until eventually deciding on Sun Microsystems (sun.com).
"This is a great win for Sun because it emphasis all of what Sun can bring in terms of solutions," says Don Bowen, director of identity integration for Sun Microsystems. "We talk about the four S's -- system, storage, software and services -- we're using most if not at all of those in the solution for the government of Norway."
Sun used a combination of Solaris 10 OS-powered Sun hardware and software technologies in its national rollout of the eNorway 2009 initiative. The eNorway 2009 solution is designed to provide the country's citizens with Web-based access and support for all government services.
The robust operating platform is comprised of the Sun Java Enterprise System, Sun identity management solutions, x64 and UltraSPARC T1 processor-based Sun Fire servers running the Solaris 10 OS. Using these technologies, Norway can now provide citizens with a secure, browser-based public access to government services via a secure and personalized portal interface.
The complete Sun solution enables the Norwegian government to encourage innovation and provide an online platform for citizens to vote, pay taxes, obtain social security benefits, register and manage automobiles, communicate with public officials and perform other civic initiatives and services.
So far, Bowen says the Norwegian government has expressed their satisfaction with the solution, and particularly Sun's Java enterprise system.
"They have been very happy running the Java enterprise system because it gives them a single vendor," says Bowen. "They like the integration [it has] with all the products, and it enables them to roll out functions and features easier."
Working with Norwegian systems integrator Software Innovation ASA (software-innovation.com), the MiniSide portal will roll-out six initiatives that will provide Norwegian citizens with secure, browser-based access to healthcare, tax, motor vehicle registration, social security, student loans and other government services.
As part of the MiniSide portal, the MiniPage Web site is based on the Sun Java system portal server that allows citizens to access services electronically using a personal, customizable portal interface with a secure log-on. Citizens can access a Web site that provides user-defined services with relevant information for each individual citizen available in one place.
Additionally, the Java system calendar server provides calendar capabilities that will help remind citizens of scheduled transactions, such as annual registration or payments, and the Sun Java system messaging server quick start service provides an email system that enables service providers to communicate with citizens.
With all these capabilities in-hand, Bowen says that Sun Microsystems prides itself on what it refers to as a "low barrier to exit", which gives current and future customers a significant reason to continue using its products and services.
"We support the standards and the open source that allows customers to pick our software," says Bowen. "But if customers decide that there's a better solution for moving off, that's good for the customer because they have freedom of choice and that's got to give them some level of confidence that Suns going to be working really extra hard to deliver the best service possible because that barrier is low."
Read Back Issues of WHIR Magazine
October 2009 - Web Hosting's All Star Team
This has been, for us, one of the most interesting, exciting and challenging build-ups to an issue of the magazine yet, Web Hosting's All Star Team. The balloting process was our first experiment with a kind of user participation we're planning to do a lot more with in the months to come. We had thousands of ballots submitted, with hundreds of write-in suggestions and a demonstration of user engagement that has us feeling super positive about the project.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
July 2009 - What am I Worth?
One of the interesting luxuries of working on a project like the printed WHIR magazine is that it allows us to play with things like our point of view from one issue to the next. In recent months we've been giving added attention to the kind of practical and applicable advice aimed at smaller hosts and resellers. This issue carries on with that point of view, asking, in our cover story, "what am I worth?" It's a complicated question without a clear-cut answer.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
May 2009 - The Blueprint for a Small Web Host
I was a little surprised by how difficult it became to see this idea through. We set out to assemble a blueprint for a small hosting business, but butted up pretty quickly against the general impossibility of covering all the territory that was out there to be covered. The basic constraints of a printed magazine, and the less-than-infinite amount of time we had available forced us to face the fact that we could never produce an exhaustive guide to starting a hosting company.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
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Comment by Anonymous on Friday, December 28, 2007
Fantastic, Sun is a well equipped company and happy to see that they are expanding there resources to the international community!