---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash Galileo UK Chooses Sun SunFLASH Vol 66 #x June 1994 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Electronic Journal For Sun Users Since 1988 John J. Mclaughlin, Publisher & Editor - flash@sun.com ____________________________________________________________________________ 66.xx Galileo UK Chooses Sun Galileo UK has selected Sun Microsystems as the hardware solution for its National Vendor Platform project, through which UK specific vendors will have the means to distribute their products using the Galileo UK network. "The aim of the National Vendor Platform project is to link UK travel related vendors such as ferry operators, tour operators, consolidators and rail into the Galileo system. Travel agents can then offer a more comprehensive booking service to their clients," explained Jean Anderson, senior product marketing manager of Galileo UK. "We investigated the possibility of using existing platforms, but decided that a new, general-purpose UNIX platform best suited our needs today, and in the future." (91 lines) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following announcement was made in the UK on June 7, 1994, by Sun. If you have questions regarding this announcement, please contact Philippe Lavie of SMCC Product Marketing at (415) 336-4406. Please direct any press inquiries to either Nic Gault in the UK at (011) 44-276-451440, or Gayle Jennings of SMCC PR at (415) 336-0787. GALILEO CHOOSES SUN FOR NATIONAL VENDOR PLATFORM The new travel vendors will be non-airline and will have a market which is either wholly or significantly national in nature. The project is the result of extensive research into the requirements of both vendors and subscribers, and will allow for close integration with the Galileo Central System at a later stage. "We needed new generation technology to cater for the broad range of services we will be distributing. We chose Sun because we wanted to base as much of the system as possible on accepted open standards at operating system and networking levels," said Colin Bell, head of network services at Galileo UK. The National Vendor Platform will link to subscribers via Galileo UK's National X25 Data network. There are currently 10,000 terminals in over 2,000 UK travel agents who will have access to the system. The system software was developed by Speedwing on behalf of Galileo UK and will be marketed by Speedwing to other Galileo national distribution centres around the world. The National Vendor Platform will be on beta test later this month. It is planned to be the first of a number of new customer-facing solutions based on UNIX and Sun hardware. Martyn Lambert, Sun Microsystems' marketing director for Northern Europe, added, "Our emphasis on supplying standards-based products, and our concentration on networking capabilities makes Sun a natural choice for open network systems." Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation (SMCC), the world's top supplier of open network computing solutions, is an operating company of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Built on Sun's legacy of "The Network is the Computer(TM)," SMCC's SPARC(R)/Solaris(R) workstation and server family leads the UNIX market. The company has its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. ### Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Solaris, Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. All SPARC trademarks, including the SCD compliant logo, are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based on an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of Unix Systems Laboratories, a wholly owned subsidiary of Novell, Inc. All other products are referred to herein by the trademarks as designated by the companies who market those products.