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                                                        The Florida SunFlash
              European Financial Firms Choose SPARC
   
SunFLASH Vol 26 #4					       February 1991 
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EUROPEAN FINANCIAL FIRMS CHOOSE SPARC FOR DATABASE SERVER APPLICATIONS

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --February 6, 1991-- High-performance
SPARCservers(TM) from Sun Microsystems have been chosen by some leading
United Kingdom-based financial firms as the platform for commercial
database applications.  Barclays de Zoete Wedd Investment Management
(BZWIM), the U.K.-based investment management arm of the Barclays Bank
Group, and the Securities and Investments Board (SIB), the chief
regulatory body for the U.K. investment industry, picked Sun SPARC(R)
systems.

These installations highlight Sun's growing presence in the commercial
marketplace.  BZWIM will use a SPARCserver 470 to run a decision
support system built on the Sybase relational database management
system.  The SPARC database server consolidates data from three
existing systems on the network -- an Amdahl mainframe, a DEC VAX and
an IBM AS/400 -- which serve both fund and business management needs at
BZWIM.  With the decision support system residing on the SPARCserver,
BZWIM investment managers now have immediate access to critical data,
such as current positions, allowing them to better manage risk and make
the best available investment choices.

Throughout the day, the SPARCserver will be updated by a realtime deal
capture system.  As a result, transaction information on the
SPARCserver will always be current.  The SPARCserver updates the larger
systems at the end of each day by sending that day's information over
the network to the appropriate system.

The SPARCserver 470 will be connected to a network of approximately 120
PCs via Ethernet running PC-NFS(R) file sharing system.  Database
processing will take place on the server, while "client" applications
will run on the PCs in a client-server configuration.  Investment
managers can access realtime information residing on the SPARCserver,
as well as fund and business management information residing on the
larger systems, via their PCs.

The system at BZWIM is being managed by Brender Management Services
(BMS), a management consultancy specializing in the information
technology (IT) field.  According to Mark Mortimer, the BMS consultant
running the project, "The Sun system is part of an overall IT strategy
at BZW because it is the most advanced system of its kind.  The high
performance of the SPARCserver makes it an ideal database engine, while
Sun's open systems approach provides the flexibility and communications
capabilities required by any large, multi-sited organization."

Securities and Investments Board

The Securities and Investments Board (SIB), which was established in
1985, is the agency that regulates all investment business throughout
the United Kingdom.  The board will use a SPARCserver 470 to re-develop
its central register inquiry system and other services, which currently
run on a time-shared system.  By moving from a time-shared system to a
Sun SPARCserver, the board expects to see greater flexibility, lower
costs and better access to investment business information.

The Sun hardware will run a powerful relational database management
system (RDBMS) from Ingres, holding details of all companies authorized
for investment business, authorized unit trusts, collective investment
schemes, and any individuals prohibited from investment business
transactions.

The new system will also handle complaints data, applications to SIB
for authorization, compliance monitoring, and the levying of fees and
charges, and will allow SIB to offer a central register telephone
enquiry service to the public.  The SPARCserver will be networked to
approximately 150 PCs to allow maximum user access.

Sun's open and powerful SPARC platforms are ideal for relational
database software such as Ingres'.  According to Clive Smith, sales
manager in finance and banking at Ingres, "Sun fully optimizes the
performance of Ingres' RDBMS - a fact borne out by sales.  More than
half of our UNIX(R) licenses are sold to run on Sun."

Ross Hopcroft, SIB's assistant director of information services, said,
"The combination of Sun hardware and Ingres software offered the best
solution for SIB's central database.  The SPARCserver 470 satisfied our
requirements for high performance and compatibility in a highly
cost-effective manner."

PR contact
	Cindee Mock (415) 336-3563

UK contact
	Sun Microsystems, Ltd. (United Kingdom)
	Ellie Pendreich 011-44-276-416474

Brender Management Services (United Kingdom)
Lawrence Hunt 011-44-71-833-100 

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