Profile: Sun Turns Up the Heat

To accomplish this, Sun's Savants will offer a Java software layer that filters data from RFID readers, gathers information about the items associated with the tags and passes the information along to enterprise applications. In addition, its Savant software will enable dynamic provisioning of software components across a distributed network. If a server routing RFID data goes down, data should be rerouted on the fly. It will also reduce the computing and traffic strain on the rest of the network by filtering out as much extraneous data at the edge of the network as possible.

Sean Clark

"A huge amount of data can be collected, but 90 percent is just noise," says Clark. "We will drive down filtering of noise as close to the edge as possible."

While the goal may be laudable, some analysts are unconvinced about the efficacy of Sun's planned platform. "No one has been able to explain to my satisfaction how to manage thousands of Savants across a distributed system," says Gartner's Woods, who believes that to make accurate sense of all the data recorded by an RFID system, Savants will need to be in constant communication with a centralized system.

Proving that a peer-to-peer system can be just as capable as a client-server model will be essential for Sun. "Savants are only valuable to Sun if the company can produce this distributed computing model,” says Woods. “Otherwise, it's not certain how much additional value Sun can provide [to RFID customers]."
Sun’s distributed concept will be competing with client-server platforms, where readers and other network edge equipment connect to more centralized servers through less complex Savants. If companies decide to deploy a client-server RFID systems instead of a peer-to-peer system like Sun's, they would be able choose from an array of Savants offered by different software vendors. "In that model, Savants become a commodity offering, and there is limited money for Sun to get anything out of the ecosystem," says Woods.

Sun maintains that a great deal of the interest companies have shown in its EPC plans has been spurred by Wal-Mart's recent announced deadline. The world's largest retailer has dictated that, starting in January 2005, its top 100 suppliers must put RFID tags on pallets and cases shipped to Wal-Mart distribution centers and stores. “We saw a need to develop and produce a solution, and we are engaging customers looking to get EPC-compliant for the Wal-Mart deadline," says Sarbacker.

But analysts question whether companies will really be interested in Sun's potentially more complex distributed computing model for their initial deployments. "Over the next few years, enabling supply chains with RFID will not be a challenging process. Wal-Mart’s demands do not require an RFID-centric approach but merely for its suppliers to be RFID-enabled,” says Woods. “That’s quite easy to do by buying new labeling equipment. You don't need Savant software for Wal-Mart."

Sun disagrees. By merely deploying new labeling equipment to apply RFID tags, a company would incur additional expense with little return, whereas Sun's offerings can bring additional benefits. "Once we talk to customers, they can see that the benefit and return is there,” says Clark. “Some customers say they are swallowing the pain and doing this. But when we demonstrate the business case—that it's not just another label on the box but visibility that can allow 20 percent of inventory to be cut, so they don't need safety stock and can reduce shrinkage by 15 percent to 20 percent—those customers see there are big dollar savings and they go directly to the bottom line."

Even so, according to Gartner forecasts, there will be no market for distributed-computing Savants until at least 2007, because that technology will take at least three more years to develop and there will be little demand for that level of complexity.

But Sun has the option to change its approach for the short term. Says Woods: "If Sun evolves Savants to be more of a general development framework and not solely about edge processing—hedging its bets—then the company may become more and more relevant."