Sun Microsystems (Thailand) general manager Rampa Manoonsin said Blackbox, which is a prototype of the world's first virtualised data centre, was built into a shipping container and optimised to deliver energy, space and performance efficiencies. It acts as a mobile data centre, putting an information-technology (IT) infrastructure in a box, and allows customers to order a variety of standard and custom system configurations for storage, networking and software.

She said Blackbox was designed for onsite government or private-sector work in which what is needed is an information centre to help make decisions and improve efficiency anywhere outside the office.

It comes with software, hardware and network infrastructure, allowing users to work anywhere, any time. It could also serve as a data centre for warning systems, supporting disaster recovery, risk management and surveillance. The firm will target the product to government agencies.

Rampa said the Blackbox would allow customers to tap its benefits in an endless variety of deployment environments, allowing a company to increase data capacity without having to undertake the cost and complexity of building a new system.

The firm will release Web 2.0, which can use IT to manage government services and provide them via single windows.

She said Web 2.0 enabled access to services though the Internet. It is based on the Java platform and service-oriented architecture. It provides application development processes and has the ability to adapt more flexibly to changing business needs.

"Web 2.0 will enable government and the private sector to make use of technology in improving their services and provide those services with greater efficiency. Government agencies could also transfer and share information together over the network," she said.

The firm this year intends to focus on four key areas: government, finance, education and telecommunications. It expects double-digit revenue growth this year.

Jirapan Boonnoon

The Nation