Sun Microsystems and Accenture Team to Develop Capabilities for Identity-Enabled Service-Oriented Architecture and Composite Applications

Companies create Innovation Center to leverage Accenture’s world-class business process experience and Sun’s open standards-based Java platforms

NEW YORK; Sept. 13 – Accenture and Sun Microsystems, Inc. today agreed to jointly develop Identity-enabled Service-Oriented Architecture and composite applications to meet growing client demands. The expanded relationship involves a series of initiatives, which initially, includes the creation of the Accenture Innovation Center for Sun Solutions.

In the identity management area, Sun and Accenture have agreed to pursue opportunities in both technology enablement and market-specific solutions. For the SOA, application integration, and composite application market, Sun and Accenture will pursue technology solutions which further enhance ease-of-use and speed to market for the creation of secure, composite applications built on the Sun platform. In addition, the companies have established an executive team that will identify and assess additional market and technology opportunities as they emerge.

“Enterprises across the world are looking to open source and open standards as they architect for Web 2.0 and the next evolution of Service-Oriented Architectures,” said Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and president of Sun Microsystems, Inc. “Sun’s leadership products and developer momentum combined with Accenture’s business process expertise and world-class implementation resources make this an ideal relationship.”

The Accenture Innovation Center for Sun Solutions will initially include engineers from Sun and Accenture -- dedicated to the development of Identity-enabled SOA-based solutions utilizing Sun’s software suite and high-performance Solaris(TM) Operating System. Capabilities created in the Center will be complemented by additional Sun-platform-based solutions developed through Accenture’s Global Delivery Network and client sites already performing Sun-related work.

“By harnessing all of our Sun-related work throughout our global network and complementing it with this additional commitment, we should be able to rapidly accelerate the delivery of new solutions for our clients’ needs,” said Don Rippert, chief technology officer at Accenture.

Joint development teams will be dedicated to the creation of custom solutions for specific client requests as well as the development of industrialized, repeatable and secure Identity-enabled and SOA-based solutions for clients globally.

Accenture and Sun have designed a solution that addresses such key business problems as providing secure IT system access to a diverse community of users (e.g. employees, contractors, partners and customers), maintaining data integrity and security, processing access requests expeditiously to increase employee productivity, and meeting regulatory requirements for increased information security, non-repudiation and compliance.

The two companies have a long relationship in supporting each other on client engagements, using Accenture’s delivery team and Sun’s hardware/software platform. As an example, the two companies teamed to implement enterprise level solutions that manage user identities for a global manufacturer with a potential for 55,000 concurrent users in more than 70 countries. And for a major European public freight and passenger railway operator, Accenture is replacing an aging legacy mainframe environment with a modern, flexible Sun Solaris platform using the Sun Java(TM) Composite Application Platform Suite.

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With more than 133,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$15.55 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2005. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
A singular vision -- “The Network Is The Computer(TM)” -- guides Sun in the development of technologies that power the world’s most important markets. Sun’s philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.

NOTE: Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Java and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

Contact Information

Alex Pachetti

Accenture

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