Archive | February, 2002

Sun’s Entry Servers Aggressive Pricing, Strong Channel Strategy and Top Performance Appealing to Range of Customers

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced that sales of its UltraSPARC® III-based entry servers are red hot. The Sun Fire]™ V880 has turned out to be the fastest selling server out of the gates for Sun. The Sun Fire 280R, another star in Sun’s volume server line, is the revenue leader within Sun’s hot-selling volume systems line. And Sun continues to bolster the price/performance benefits of its volume systems by slashing up to 28 percent off the price of the popular two-way Sun Fire 280R server.

Sun Fire V880 Entry Server Steps In and Takes Over

The Sun Fire V880 server booked more than 4,500 sales during the first two months following its introduction last October. At that phenomenal rate, Sun’s new entrant to the eight-way server marketplace is posting better sales than any of the leading competitors in that market segment today, according to IDC’s server market report for Q2CY’01, including Compaq, Dell, IBM or HP.

“We fixed our sights on the Wintel market and our customers have told us we nailed the bull’s-eye; they couldn’t wait for our new Sun Fire V880 servers,” said Neil Knox, vice president and general manager of Sun’s Volume Systems Products division. “With this server, we focused our design leadership on the fastest growing segment of the server market, and we’re delivering better price/performance with lower total cost of ownership for our customers. Additionally, with more than half of our sales flowing through channel partners worldwide, their reach and market expertise add tremendous value to our strong product offerings and make our volume strategy a very real threat to the Wintel world.”

The Sun Fire V880’s performance is superior to PC servers on many levels, according to the most recent Unix Server Pricing and Configuration Monitor Update from D.H. Brown Associates, Inc. The report states that the Sun Fire V880 offers four to 16 times the CPU cache and six times the system bandwidth than PC servers. Sun is also cited as offering the least expensive systems in the four-way Unix server market, providing a 40 percent cost savings over IBM. Overall, the report declares Sun the low-cost leader in the Unix server space.

Sun Fire 280R Outperforms Gigahertz Servers at Affordable Price
Bolstering the price/performance benefits of its Sun Fire volume servers, Sun slashed the price on its rack-optimized, dual-processor Sun Fire 280R server by up to 28 percent. Delivering enterprise-class features and availability at entry-level pricing, the Sun Fire 280R server addresses customer needs for mission-critical, network intensive and compute-intensive applications. The server provides level 2 cache, memory and system interconnect capabilities well out of reach of similar Pentium III-based Wintel/Lintel and entry-level servers.

Regarded for its performance and large memory capacity, the Sun Fire 280R server, with 900 MHz UltraSPARC III processors and running the Solaris™ 8 Operating Environment, outperforms competing Compaq and IBM 1.26 GHz Lintel servers by up to 55 percent on Sun’s Web Workload benchmark utilizing Apache web server.

D.H. Brown Associates’ Unix Server Pricing and Configuration Monitor Update confirms that Sun leads the pack in price advantage for one- to two-way Unix servers, with Sun coming in at 40 percent below the average system cost in that category.

The Sun Fire 280R provides the reliability and scalability of the Solaris platform, delivering lower total cost of ownership, reduced complexity and the seamless scalability of Sun’s binary compatible end-to-end product line.

Customers Across the Board Seek Better Performance, Lower TCO

University of Houston

In a deal worth more than $1 million at the University of Houston, researchers have built a large computational cluster–founded on the Solaris[tm] Operating Environment, Sun Grid Engine software and Sun hardware, including 13 Sun Fire V880 servers–to aggregate and manage compute power over several concurrent projects in the development of state-of-the-art environmental modeling and seismic imaging applications.

“UH researchers will utilize the new Sun computational cluster to enhance and deploy a multiscale Air Quality Model that simulates potentially harmful atmospheric conditions and assists in the development of highly accurate identification and quantification of hydrocarbon reserves for oil exploration. This will help improve utilization of national energy reserves,” stated Barbara Chapman, Associate Professor at the University of Houston.

Center for Atmosphere-Ocean Science, New York University

At New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematics, home of the university’s Center for Atmosphere-Ocean Science, a large installation of Sun Fire 280R servers helps researchers perform data-intensive climate modeling.

“Climate modeling is a computationally intensive activity that is amenable to code parallelization techniques, such as domain decomposition,” said David Holland of the Institute. “The 64-bit, high-performance processing capabilities of our Sun systems are essential to providing the robust computing power required for our research. At the Center for Atmosphere-Ocean Science, our 16-node cluster of Sun Fire 280R servers connected by a high-speed network gives us the ability to accurately and quickly develop the data-intensive models used in the study of climate.”

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision — “The Network Is The Computer[tm]” — has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to take their businesses to the nth. Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com

Sun’s Calendar 2001 Unix/ RISC Unit Market Share Grows Ten Percent

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) demonstrated stellar market acceptance in a tough economy by growing UNIX®/RISC unit market share in calendar year 2001 at the expense of major competitors. According to Gartner Dataquest’s Q4 US Server Database Report, Sun remains the number one leader in UNIX/RISC units and revenue by a wide margin. Over the past five years, Sun has grown its market position to a solid number one in UNIX/RISC systems. The company’s focus on systems design and best-of-breed solutions is reflected in its competitive strength.

Maintaining its strong hold on the UNIX server landscape, Sun again holds the number one UNIX/RISC server vendor position in the US, shipping two out of every three systems. With over 34,000 unit shipments in Q4, Sun captures the lion’s share of the market with 68.5 percent, more than double that of its nearest three competitors combined. While the economy continues to put a squeeze on the UNIX/RISC server market in general, Sun demonstrated 13.5 percent sequential quarterly growth in shipments.

Sun ended the 2001 calendar year strong, resulting from the positive momentum generated from its roll out of the highly anticipated 900 MHz UltraSPARC[tm] III Cu processor, the launch of its new line of Sun Fire™ Midframe servers, as well as the debut of its flagship high-end Sun Fire™ 15K server. And rapid acceptance of the new Sun Fire v880 system has resulted in the fastest ramp of any new Sun product.

Customers, many of which are brand new Sun customers, are consistently choosing Sun over competitors for their server consolidation, mainframe rehosting and mission-critical data center needs. Sun’s seamless transition to its new UltraSPARC III based systems is reflected in its sequential quarterly growth leadership position. The new Sun Fire product line — from entry to high-end — brought in over one billion dollars in US revenue for the 2001 calendar year.

“Even in a troubled economy, Sun is undaunted, winning customer after customer in competitive deals worldwide,” said Shahin Khan, chief competitive officer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. “The numbers prove that Sun’s rock solid reliable and massively scalable server line is what the market wants. The need for simplicity, reliability and scalability is driving the demand for UNIX/RISC servers and Sun’s SPARC/Solaris[tm] offering is continuously the platform of choice.”

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision — The Network Is The Computer[tm] — has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to take their businesses to the nth. Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Sun Fire, Solaris and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd.

Will Ship Linux for New Line of Low-End Systems and Make Aggressive Entry Into Systems Market

In a sweeping move, Sun Microsystems, Inc. expanded its support via a three-prong approach in support of the Linux operating system. First, Sun announced it will ship a full implementation of the Linux operating system. Second, Sun will dramatically expand its line of Sun Cobalt[tm] Linux appliances and will also introduce a new family of low-end general purpose Linux/x86-based systems. And third, it will more aggressively participate in the Linux community by freely offering key components of its Solaris[tm] operating environment software.

“Ultimately, customers need to develop and deploy new services quickly and across their corporate networks, as well as the entire Internet,” said Ed Zander, Sun’s president and chief operating officer. “By adding the Linux community to the hundreds of thousands of Solaris developers, and the nearly 3 million Java[tm]/XML developers, Sun’s customers have unified access to the broadest array of innovation in the industry on which to provide services. Sun remains the best open business opportunity for developers.”

“In addition, we have some of the industry’s most advanced UNIX®, Java™/XML experts now working to advance Linux with the key mission-critical features of the Java platform and Solaris operating environment,” he said. “We will now offer our customers an incredible value proposition by delivering our binary compatible industry leading system family running on the SPARC™ platform and Solaris software system which starts at less than one thousand and goes to nearly ten million dollars, along with our new Sun Linux low-end servers and Sun Cobalt appliances for emerging edge services applications. And with our Sun™ Open Net Environment(Sun ONE), Java- and XML-based software platform, developers can write to one software platform and run their applications or services across a vast array of systems.”

Announced today

1. Sun will ship a full implementation of the Linux operating system.
2. Sun will ship Linux on both its popular Sun Cobalt™ appliances and a new class of low-end single and multiprocessing x86-based servers, which will be announced in the near future.
3. Sun will deliver the entire Sun ONE infrastructure software suite on the Linux platform. This is in addition to the existing Sun software that is already optimized for Linux, including the iPlanet™ Directory and Web Servers, the Java/XML platform, Forte™ for Java[tm] development tools, Project JXTA, StarOffice™ productivity suite, Sun[tm]Chili!Soft ASP and the Sun Grid Engine.
4. Sun is shipping built-in Linux compatibility with Solaris today, enabling it to run Linux applications on any Solaris-based system. In addition, Sun announced a Linux compatibility assurance tool (LinCAT).
5. GNOME, the most advanced Linux user environment, will become the preferred desktop for Solaris when GNOME 2.0 begins shipping later this year.
6. Sun will expand its partnering with the Linux community to provide native support of Linux on SPARC systems for both the telecommunications and embedded markets. Today, companies such as SuSE and Lineo already support Linux native on Sun’s SPARC microprocessors.
7. Sun will support its Linux products with a rich set of support and professional services.
8. Sun will support Linux on its key Sun StorEdge™ line of storage systems and software.
9. Sun will continue to be one of the largest contributors of intellectual property to the Linux and open source communities, and will offer contributions to the Linux kernel. As an example, Sun today released a new tool to the Linux community that aids application developers in assuring compatibility between Linux releases. ABIcheck was ported from Solaris to Linux and released under an open source license. Sun also announced its intention to open source key technologies in its implementation of the forthcoming Liberty Alliance Specification (an alliance to deliver an open standard for federated network identity).

Sun’s First General Purpose Linux Server

Sun will expand the use of Linux beyond its existing Sun Cobalt appliances. It will extend its ‘edge’ server family in order to address the growing demand for low-priced, horizontally scalable servers. Sun is already the world’s leading supplier of Linux-based appliance systems. Its Sun Cobalt line of server appliances starts at less than $1,000 and has an installed base of more than 100,000 units. The company will continue to enhance the Sun Cobalt line of Linux appliances beyond its current eight-inch square “Qube” and 1.75-inch high rack-mountable configurations.

In addition, by mid-year, Sun will disclose details of its new family of general purpose, low-end Linux servers, including single and multiprocessing systems capable of running the thousands of native Linux and Java applications. The systems will be sold through Sun’s direct sales force, by its reseller channel partners and via its online catalog and will be backed by Sun’s service and support organization and consulting practices.

The Sun Cobalt line will be sold along side Sun’s family of Sun Fire™ and Netra™ general purpose servers running the Solaris operating environment on the SPARC platform. These systems continue to offer a high level of RAS and scalability, can run the more than 10,000 Solaris applications and are binary compatible with Sun’s small-to-enterprise class Sun Fire family of servers.

Key Sun Software Now On Linux

A large portion of Sun’s software portfolio already runs on Linux. Sun will now deliver all of its Sun ONE software, as well as many other key software technologies, on the Linux platform. This includes the iPlanet, Java and Forte product portfolios. Other key software includes management and provisioning utilities, peer-to-peer technology and service delivery tools.

Linux Applications on Solaris

Solaris 8 runs Linux applications today. Sun also announced it is delivering built-in Linux compatibility in key programming interfaces, commands and utilities, and user environments. In addition, Sun is delivering LinCAT (Linux Compatibility Assurance Toolkit) to simplify the process of assuring Linux applications will run on its Sun Fire family of servers. Further, Sun announced that Solaris 9, now in early access, will provide even more built-in Linux commands, utilities and interfaces.

Linux on the SPARC Platform

Sun will continue to work with the Linux community to provide Linux running native on systems running the SPARC platform. In the embedded market, Lineo will adapt and support Lineo’s Embedix Linux operating system products to run on UltraSPARC processor-based end user developed custom hardware. Lineo is working to create a full-featured UltraSPARC processor-focused software development kit complete with the Lineo Embedix operating system. Developers will also have free access to a basic version of embedded Linux operating system fine tuned to run on the UltraSPARC processor.

Contributions to Open Source

Sun is already one of the largest providers of intellectual property to the Linux and open source communities. Sun has a 20-year history of participating in collaborative development. Sun today contributes resources and technology to free and open source projects including: OpenOffice.org, GNOME.org, Mozilla.org, Apache.org, NetBeans.org, X.org, WBEMsource Initiative, the University of Michigan NFS version 4 Linux port, the Grid Engine Project and Project JXTA.

Sun will extend its participation by offering key elements of its Solaris Operating Environment. With more than 7,000 architecture and software engineering experts, Sun has pioneered the use of UNIX in enterprise and service provider mission-critical environments. Sun will now apply this expertise to deliver key components of the Solaris operating environment to the Linux community.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision — “The Network Is The Computer[tm]” — has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to take their businesses to the nth. With $18.3 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Forte, iForce, iPlanet, Java, Netra, Sun Fire, Sun Enterprise, Sun Chili!Soft ASP, Sun Cobalt, Sun Grid, Sun StorEdge, Solaris, StarOffice and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the US and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.

LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.

UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd