Sun wants to put RFID everywhere

ZDNet UK
Oct. 29, 2005

Sun is trialling pervasive radio-frequency identification technology that could allow a company to track all its assets

Sun Microsystems is developing radio frequency identification (RFID) that will work with its existing enterprise asset-management systems to track non-networked items.

The Sun RFID Industry Solution for Physical Asset Tracking is still under development and is aimed at the parts of a business or public sector organisation that can’t easily be networked using traditional means.

The system keeps an inventory of exactly what assets an organisation owns, and includes RFID products and integration services that enable the monitoring of an enterprise’s assets using RFID tags, readers and software. The package also includes products and services from Sun and outside partners. Its main purpose is to help businesses control expenses and meet industry mandates.

Included is Sun's Java-based middleware, which interfaces and feeds RFID-collected data to back-end applications and can also be embedded onto readers to cut down on traffic on an enterprises' network.

The product aims to enable asset tracking of non-networked, physical assets which are not connected to a network and are not easily discoverable with traditional IT asset management and network management software.

Sun has not yet confirmed a release date for the product.