IT to hit the Fan
IT to hit the Fan |
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It is only five years since Penwth Council decided to abandon its existing Microsoft Operating Systems and software having come to the conclusion that they were too expensive to maintain. Penwith instead entered into partnership with Sun Microsystems to deliver its IT needs. This included Sun Enterprise servers and the Sun Java desktop operating systems with 'Open Office', Penwith became the only council in Cornwall to take such action, all the other district councils and the County Council elected to continue with 'industry standard' Microsoft products.
Now it seems that much of the tax payers money spent on buying into the alternative Sun Microsystems solution (an estimated £2.8m), may have to be written off as Penwith rethinks the way ahead and Microsoft systems return to favour.
Hayle Eye understands that although the initial purchase cost of the Sun Systems solution seemed very attractive, the long term cost of supporting and providing training for the system proved more expensive than the Microsoft alternative while the expected returns from selling Penwith's expertise in using Sun Microsystems to other local authorities were disappointing.
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