The test center, located at the Singapore office of Sun Microsystems in Central Mall, is one of the only four in the world operated by the company. The other three iForce Solution Centers are located in Menlo Park in the US, Paris, and Tokyo.
Prior to its formal launch this month, the iForce Solution Center had already completed a total of 18 proof-of-concept projects since its soft opening in October last year.
One of the prototypes tested in the hub was GCash, Globe Telecom’s mobile phone-based payment system which recently made history as the first awardee for "Best Mobile Messaging Service" in the GSM Association Awards held in Cannes, France.
The center, with a total land area of 380 square meters, has a real-world environment that allows customers to define and solve integration challenges and promote interoperability across multivendor solutions. It also provides assistance to customers with everything from brainstorming to proof-of-concepts to pilot programs.
Lionel Lim, vice president and managing director for Asia South of Sun Microsystems, said next step for the company will be the establishment of satellite centers and more partner-run authorized iForce Solution Centers around the region to complement the facility.
In his speech, Lim likened the test center to a race track where Sun partners and customers can develop and "test drive" their solutions before deploying them in the field. "When you buy a Ferrari, you would necessarily want to test drive it to know how it runs. We’re providing that same environment here to help build customer confidence in Sun solutions, products, and services."
The setting up of the test hub in Singapore, according to Sun Executive Vice President for Scalable Systems Group David Yen, is a confirmation of the increasing importance of South Asia, which includes the Philippines.
"South Asia is actually one of the fastest growing regions in the world. With this new initiative, we are actively contributing innovations so that this growth will be sustained," Yen, a native of Taiwan, said.
With the iForce Solution Center, Sun Microsystems joins other global giants such as Philips and Oracle in using Singapore as their development and testing center, said Teo Ming Kian, chair of the Economic and Development Board of Singapore.
Sun officials said a significant differentiator of the iForce initiative is the dynamic relationship and interaction between Sun and its industry partners. By working together and creating a community of best-in-class solution, the center can help customers accelerate time to service on the Sun platform.
Sun solutions are showcased in the new center, which includes Solaris 10, Sun Java System RFID Software and Enterprise Storage Manager Advanced Applications, stateof-the-art POC technology equipment from high-end SF6900 enterprise server and storage SE6920/SE6130 to entry level servers such as V440, V480, V210, V240, V20z, V60x.
