According to Sun Microsystems Middle East & North Africa, the Saudi Arabian National Guard Health Affairs (SANG-HA) has gone live with the largest-ever order of SunRay desktop systems and StarOffice licenses in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. SANG-HA has deployed 1,500 SunRay thin client desktop systems, in addition to purchasing 4,000 StarOffice licenses, in order to refresh its IT technology strategy. The Arabic-enabled nature of Sun’s StarOffice productivity suite, as well as the significantly more affordable investment level for the Sun desktop solution, were cited as the major causes for the switch.
“SANG-HA’s hospitals and health utilities are among the best in the region. SANG-HA has adopted a strategic IT plan, which will contribute to the development of health services provided to the patients. Infrastructure development is a major focus area for us and the ability to use Sun’s Arabic-enabled StarOffice suite and lower operational costs at the same time is making a major impact on SANG-HA’s bottom line,” said Dr. Majid Al-Tuwaijri, executive director for Information Systems and Informatics, SANG-HA.
The switch to a comprehensive Sun desktop solution complements SANG-HA’s existing deployment of Sun mid- and enterprise-level servers, including more than 40 workgroup servers and a Sun StorEdge enterprise data management solution.
Riyadh-based Sun iForce partner Jeraisy Computer & Communication Systems has implemented the new desktop environment for SANG-HA. The Sun solution is being deployed in sites such as the King Fahd Hospital in Riyadh, the King Khaled Hospital in Jeddah, and the new King Abdul Aziz Healthcare Facilities being completed in the Eastern Province. Sun’s partner Citrix has also been involved in the project.
