New Software Simplifies Management of Data Center Servers and Business Services
During its quarterly Network Computing ’05 (NC05Q2) launch today, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) announced two new software releases within its Sun N1(TM) product family: Sun N1 System Manager, an easy to use tool for managing large and small installations of Sun systems, starting with Sun’s x64 servers and broadening out to include more systems in the future and the latest version of Sun N1 Service Provisioning System, which introduces bare-metal operating system (OS) provisioning of: Java(TM) 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE(TM) platform) application servers, Web servers and databases.
“MCI is adopting new technologies that deliver next generation services for our customers,” said Tim Muilenburg, vice president of MCI IT Infrastructure. “The equipment and software behind these technologies must be best in quality so our services meet the expectations of our enterprise and government customers. We expect Sun’s N1 tools to help us achieve our goals by automating application provisioning and increasing our data center efficiency. Also, as we utilize the N1 Service Provisioning System, we will be able to accelerate the delivery of business services from several days to a few hours.”
Sun N1 System Manager offers customers an efficient way of managing large and small numbers of Sun systems. Core capabilities include:
- Discovery – users are able to automatically discover their systems from bare-metal and logically organize systems into user defined groups.
- Provisioning – enables users to remotely install their operating systems onto bare-metal systems or to re-provision existing systems.
- Remote Monitoring – offers administrators detailed hardware monitoring for attributes such as temperature, fan and disk usage, as well as OS monitoring for attributes such as memory, CPU, and file systems.
- Remote Management – provides users with secure lights out management capabilities, such as powering systems on and off with role-based access control that grants access privileges to specific users.
The Sun N1 System Manager also features a hybrid user interface that integrates both the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and Command Line Interface (CLI). With the hybrid interface, operations performed in the GUI are simultaneously reflected in the CLI and vice versa.
“Sun’s N1 software tools are making it easier for organizations to manage the complex systems that deliver their business services,” said Tom Goguen, vice president of product marketing, Operating Platforms at Sun. “With Sun N1 System Manager and Sun N1 Service Provision System, companies can now control the entire stack from bare-metal system through OS to applications and business services.”
The Sun N1 Service Provisioning System simplifies application lifecycle management by rapidly provisioning business services that span multiple tiers – J2EE application servers, Web servers, and databases – across heterogeneous environments. It offers organizations a standard method for deploying business services and tracking changes throughout the deployment process and includes an audit trail to help customers meet regulatory compliance. New features include:
- Application Library – delivers pre-built models for deploying industry leading J2EE application servers, web servers, or database servers from Sun, Oracle, BEA and IBM onto the Solaris OS, including Solaris Containers, and other operating systems, including: Windows Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and AIX.
- Bare-Metal OS Provisioning – allows system administrators to remotely install, configure and rapidly provision operating systems such as the Solaris(TM) OS, Microsoft Windows Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Through built-in procedures, customers can also rapidly deploy Solaris OS packages and patches, Red Hat Linux package manager files, and Microsoft Windows-based applications, eliminating the need to individually update systems.
Pricing and Availability
Sun N1 System Manager pricing will start at $299 (USD) per managed server and will be available for download on at: www.sun.com/n1, in late summer 2005. The N1 Service Provisioning System pricing starts at $1400 (USD) per managed server and is available now for download at: www.sun.com/n1. Alternatively, customers can purchase N1 Service Provisioning System as part of the Sun Java(TM) Enterprise System.
Sun’s NC05Q2 Web event is available at: http://www.sun.com/nc/05q2. More information on today’s announcements, including full Press Releases and product details, can be viewed at Sun’s online press kit: http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/networkcomputing05q2/.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision — “The Network Is The Computer” — has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com
Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Java, J2EE, N1, Sun Fire, and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.