Open Source Vendor rSmart Collaborates with Sun on Kuali Programs

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 03/05/08

rSmart, which makes open source software for education, said it is collaborating with Sun Microsystems to develop Kuali-based programs certified to run on Sun's collection of systems and open source infrastructure software, including Solaris, MySQL, GlassFish, OpenSSO and OpenESB. The first application will be the Kuali Financial System.

The Kuali Foundation manages a portfolio of enterprise software applications for colleges and universities, for finance, research administration, endowment management, and student systems.

"Perceived lack of support is often cited as a primary reason why colleges and universities do not consider adopting open source software solutions like Kuali," said Chris Coppola, CEO, rSmart. "With this collaboration schools no longer have this barrier to worry about. Sun and rSmart together will support entire Kuali solutions, from the hardware all the way up to, and including, the Kuali application."

Demonstrating its commitment to the education market, Sun Microsystems will help establish several institutions as Sun Centers of Excellence (COE) for the Kuali solutions.

"This collaboration, coupled with Kuali open source software, will help colleges and universities cut the costs of administrative computing while benefiting from enterprise applications built for education by education," said Gary Geramanis, Global Account Manager, Sun Microsystems. "By relying on Sun and rSmart institutions will be able to deploy Kuali software with the highest level of confidence. We are pleased to be a part of this important initiative."

rSmart also develops applications for the Sakai open source platform.