The Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) of New South Wales (NSW) has chosen Sun solutions for its new email and calendar applications. Some 1,500 RTA users will migrate from the authority's legacy system to the Sun JavaTM System Messaging and Calendar servers. This is the largest open standards-based software rollout in NSW government.

The RTA will use StarOfficeTM productivity suite for word processing, spreadsheets and presentation development, and a MozillaTM browser and client viewer to access their email and calendar information.

The solutions will run in Linux on several mid-range servers, including the Sun FireTM V20z, Sun FireTM V440 and Sun FireTM V240. Also under consideration is a move from desktop PC hardware to Sun RayTM thin-client desktop appliances and the Sun JavaTM Desktop System in a drive to cut the total cost of ownership on the desktop.

"The RTA wanted to move to an open-standards based system on the desktop to cut its escalating software and maintenance costs. Sun's standards-based, back-end infrastructure is the critical first step in moving the RTA to open-source alternatives across the enterprise," said Greg Carvouni, chief information officer, RTA.

"The RTA expects to reduce desktop and server costs by at least 20 percent with the migration to Sun's open source-based Sun Java System Messaging Server and StarOffice, the productivity suite based on open-source initiatives," Carvouni said. "Savings of up to $2 million per annum could be realized when the implementation of this technology is extended to connect up to half of the RTA's 7000 desktops in the next few years."

"This is a landmark decision for Australian government. The RTA will join other world leaders that have successfully cut the cost and complexity of their IT using open-standards based solutions," said Jim Hassell, managing director, Sun.

"This project at the RTA sends a very clear message to the whole industry that it is possible to move to open desktop systems. The RTA should be congratulated for their focus and vision in driving this initiative to a successful outcome on behalf of the NSW Government," continued Hassell. "By moving to Sun Java System software and StarOffice, the RTA is free to choose from a vast range of software alternatives moving forward and will be immune to many of the virus and security breaches that afflict Microsoft products."

RTA is also deploying the Sun JavaTM System Portal Server, Sun JavaTM System Directory Server Enterprise Edition and Sun JavaTM System Identity Manager to provide its portal and identity management capabilities. This solution is designed to scale out to many thousands of users and support enterprise-wide portal, directory and identity services. [...read more...]

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