Sun Microsystems and SAFEA Announce Open Source Collaboration to Benefit China's Higher Education

Printer-friendly versionPDF version

Effort Aims to Significantly Improve the Quality and Capability of China's University Administrators,

BEIJING, CHINA April 21, 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA) and State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of People's Republic of China (SAFEA) today signed a pioneering agreement to support China's national drive on talents cultivation and significantly improve the quality and capabilities of China's university administrators, teachers and future technologists by leveraging the power of open source technologies.

Through a memorandum of understanding, Sun Microsystems and SAFEA will commit to a long-term cooperation relationship on a series of customized seminars, trainings, workshops and internship programs to empower key university administrators, teachers and IT talents with Sun's world leading IT innovations and industry-recognized open source technologies. Additionally, the two will collaborate on the training programs for key teachers from China’s National Software and IC Talent International Training Bases and National Linux Technology Training and Promotion Centers.

SAFEA is the administrative department of the Chinese government that is responsible for sending Chinese technical and managerial professionals for overseas training, as well as managing foreign talent that comes to train in China. In recent years, SAFEA's training program has been seen as extremely effective in terms of enhancing the quality of teachers and IT talents to improve the capability of universities on an international playing field. As Open Source technology has consistently been connected to innovation and competitiveness, this agreement will help China's higher education talent get exposed to the forefront of information technology and promote it more widely throughout the country.

"As one of the largest contributor to the open source community, Sun has long championed the innovative and competitive effects of Open Source and we've consistently seen the positive impact that results when higher education leads the way," said Lin Lee, Vice President, Global Communities, Sun Microsystems. "We applaud SAFEA for its leadership and commitment to harnessing this future trend. By pledging to support Open Source professional development for higher education talent, China's government leaders are showing another positive direction in the country's leading-edge thinking that will continue to build on its rich history of innovation."

"The development of information technology and open source brings new demands and new challenges to higher education and high-end talent cultivation, while at the same time bringing new opportunities. Sun is well known for its technology innovation, open spirit and open source strategy, " said Li Bing, Deputy Director, State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China. "The cooperation with Sun is in line with the strategy of SAFEA in terms of talent absorption. It helps broaden the vision of Chinese faculties in the field of higher education and talent cultivation and deepens their understanding on the forefront of information technology."

Sun's Open Source technologies -- software or technology that is distributed under a license enabling users the right to copy, modify and redistribute the source code -- have proven to be more cost-effective, provide greater security, and deliver enhanced accessibility for citizens. Today, most of the Internet runs on free, open-source software such as Apache, MySQL and GNU/Linux. By leveraging open technologies, organizations are no longer locked-in to expensive, long-term licensing contracts that typically require additional costs for new technologies to work with legacy solutions.

In recent months, Open Source adoption around the world has grown. In February 2009, the Ministry of Technology in the United Kingdom announced that it will now direct the nation's government agencies to adopt Open Source in new ways while even preferring it over proprietary software in some cases. It joined the governments of Vietnam, Brazil, Denmark and South Africa among others that have recognized the power of open standards or Open Source technology solutions for the benefit of their citizens to lower costs, improve security and reduce the use of pirated software.

About SAFEA

The State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA), People's Republic of China, is responsible for the administration of experts from abroad, and from the Hong Kong SAR, the Macao SAR and the Taiwan region in various fields, and is also in charge of sending Chinese technical and managerial professionals from government departments and enterprises for overseas training.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the Computer" -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web athttp://sun.com.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Java, MySQL and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

News Source : Sun Microsystems and SAFEA Announce Open Source Collaboration to Benefit China's Higher Education