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Internet Databases
"I
found this site to be of great use. You can't imagine what its like to spend
time hunting down a certain version of an operating system. I wanted to let you
folks know that this 'service' is much appreciated. Thanks and keep up the great
archive."
"Just wanted to let you know that I think CDROM.eng is superb.
I wish we'd had it years ago when I was in the answer center. The amount of time
and hassle that it saves is incalculable."
"What a painless software
distribution system! Great job and thanks!" |
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These are a few of many
kudos given to Marie Balda of SUNís Metrics and Quality Department for Software
Products and Platforms. Thanks to a centralized software distribution center
running several of the Luminex Fire Series CD-Power Jukeboxes, any internal SUN
employee can access over 500 CDs worth of SUN's own commercial software over the
corporate intranet.
The project started in 1996
because SUN wanted to solve customer problems quicker. Developers often need to
recreate customer environments in order to track down bugs. This process may
involve hunting down a number of SUNís commercially distributed CD-ROMS. The
goal of this project is to provide an internal company online library of SUN's
own CD-ROMS accessible through the web, over NFS, and via FTP.
SUN's
method of releasing product at the time was on CD-ROM via traditional mail
delivery. To speed things up from the traditional days, SUN uses five Luminex
CD-Power Jukeboxes running on a Sparcstation5 that hosts a collection of all Sun
products released on CD-ROM. Any internal Sun employee who can access the
jukebox over the Sun Wide Area Network can use this service. Usage is really
worldwide, from almost fifty separate geographical locations.
The Luminex solution has impacted various
departments, workgroups, and clients by allowing users the ability to download
software in seconds. This is compared to a procurement process that could take
as long as two and a half months through normal channels prior to inception of
the online jukebox.
Since its inception in June 1996, there have been
over 1.6 million hits and over 1.3 million downloads from the website. This
doesn't include NFS mounts and transfer via ftp, for which SUN does not maintain
statistics.
Productivity gains are now being realized due to the Luminex
solution. "We can solve customer problems quicker. The amount of time and hassle
that it saves is incalculable," according to Marie Balda. On top of helping out
customers, Sun employees in Sales and Marketing, who need to educate themselves
about products, can do so without having to wait for snail mail delivery.
A conclusion from one happy user, "Surely this little project has earned
you your place in heaven (with chocolate chip cookies AND milk ;-) I am
impressed - I wish this had been available YEARS ago!"
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