February 1, 2005 – (Press Release) – During its quarterly Network Computing '05 (NC05Q1) launch today, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) presented its vision for a new era in network computing and unveiled major elements of its new Sun Grid utility offering. Sun's drive to simplify computing is anchored by its pioneering approach to enable customers to tap the power of the network -- using only what they need, when they need it -- for $1/cpu-hr (USD).
The launch marked the opening day of the annual Sun Analyst Summit where the company introduced new Client Solutions practices and a comprehensive set of new services and solutions designed to radically simplify the business of selecting, acquiring and using IT infrastructure. Sun also announced a broader strategy for its subscription-based Sun Java(TM) Enterprise System (Java ES) offering with a new array of market-driven software suites for $50 per employee (USD), per year.
"Despite the warped logic and rhetoric to the contrary, most successful businesses figured out long ago that IT matters," said Scott McNealy, chairman and CEO of Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Today Sun has taken the next big step in offering IT as a utility and is the first vendor to truly deliver on the promise of an open, standardized grid. As the IT industry continues to evolve, customers will need to move away from building data centers in a one-off customized model toward a standardized model and eventually to a utility model. Sun's $1/cpu-hr and $1/GB-mo compute and storage offerings provide the right answers for customers worldwide to take advantage of IT as a service. It's imperative that CIOs and CFOs benchmark their own data centers to see how they stack up against the one buck threshold."
"AMD's silicon-to-solutions partnership with Sun is leading to some of the most powerful innovations to hit the IT market," said Hector Ruiz, chairman, president and CEO of AMD. "Our progress is evidenced in the remarkable momentum of the AMD Opteron(TM) processor in the enterprise, the rapid adoption of Solaris(TM) 10 -- the most significant update to Sun's flagship operating system -- and now the innovative value proposition of the Sun Grid utility computing model. With the introduction of dual-core versions of the AMD Opteron processor planned for mid-year, AMD will enable the ultimate hardware platform for delivering the full potential of Solaris 10 and the Sun Grid."
Sun's expanded vision and new technology innovations represent a significant evolution in its approach to network computing and serve as a pointer for service-oriented data centers of tomorrow -- spanning the availability of true IT on tap from the network to agile data centers designed to provide maximum security and efficiency. New products, solutions and services rolled out as part of Sun's quarterly NC05Q1 launch event include:
-- The Sun Grid Goes Global -- with thousands of CPUs powered up in Texas, Virginia, New Jersey and Scotland, and plans for more to come from Sun and its iForce(SM) partners in 2005, in locations including North America, Europe and Asia.
-- New Client Solutions Organization -- brings together more than 10,000 world-class experts across Sun, focused on six global practices, to provide customers quicker and easier access to Sun's wide range of deep industry expertise and iForce partner offerings.
-- New and Enhanced Solutions -- including the new Sun(TM) Compliance and Content Management Solution program; new Sun Infrastructure Solution for Secure Network Access Platform, which encompasses the Sun VoIP Application Services Solution with technology from Lucent Technologies; and enhanced Sun Service Optimized Data Center program.
-- Java ES and Java Suites -- new release of Java ES and initial suites, including identity management, application platform services, system availability, Web infrastructure and enterprise communications. Each of the Java Suites is available by subscription for $50 per employee, per year with an infinite right-to-use (RTU).
-- New Sun Services -- Sun Preventive Services with added partner capabilities and system-level connected services. Enhancements to Sun Preventive Services, Sun Update Connection services and Net Connect services will help customers reduce management costs, increase system availability and reduce risk. A pivotal new piece of Sun's services portfolio comes from the recently completed acquisition of SevenSpace, enabling Sun to further expand its offerings to include remote management and support services for heterogeneous environments, including Linux, Windows, HP-UX, and IBM AIX.
"Growth opportunities in our business are tremendous, and we need a robust, scalable infrastructure that will enable us to accommodate rapid growth and continue our leadership position," said Frank Patry, vice president, Enterprise Information Technology at XM Satellite Radio. "We firmly believe IT is a strategic business driver, so we demand more out of our partners like Sun to meet the challenge. Sun's innovative technologies and solutions -- and vision to simplify the selection, acquisition and use of IT -- will put Sun Microsystems at the center of a new era in network computing."
A Focus on Essential IT Infrastructure Also on stage at Sun's NC05Q1 event, Jonathan Schwartz, president and COO at Sun, emphasized how Sun's approach to the data center will usher in a new era of computing in which customers build IT infrastructures that can deploy network services on the fly, tailored to unique business and technology requirements. Through best practices and methodologies from Sun and its more than 20,000 iForce partners, Sun can help customers move towards a service optimized data center to increase agility, improve efficiency and lower risk.
Sun Lights Up the Grid
Sun continued its industry-leading drive with new utility computing offerings, revolutionizing the way customers buy and use IT infrastructure. The company introduced the Sun Grid and unveiled its plans for new innovations in technology and delivery mechanisms expected to be rolled out this calendar year, including new compute, storage, developer and desktop utility offerings. More information on Sun's $1/cpu-hr compute offering and its $1/GB-mo storage offering is available at http://sun.com/presskits/networkcomputing05q1/ .
New Client Solutions Practices Address Customer Hot Spots Schwartz also discussed Sun's evolving sales strategy, providing an overview of its continued progress to build holistic practices within its Client Solutions organization, providing world-class expertise to address customers' toughest IT issues. Sun issued a set of principles to guide CIOs as they plan and build next-generation data centers and also announced its top solutions designed to address today's hottest customer pain points, including enterprise consolidation, migration solution, content management and compliance, security and identity management.
Array of Market-Driven Software Suites Unveiled
Sun broadened its strategy for the subscription-based Java ES offering with a new array of market-driven software suites. The Java System Suites provide high-impact customer solutions, including identity management, application platform services, system availability and enterprise communications. Sun also introduced a Web services suite to solve the mid- market's need for affordable, easy-to-deploy Web services. This suite, the Java System Web Infrastructure Suite, is central to a new mid-market initiative for Sun. Current Java Enterprise System customers may upgrade for free. Java Enterprise System Release 3 is currently available by subscription for $140 (USD) per employee, per year.
Sun's NC05Q1 Web event is available on the World Wide Web at sun.com/nc/05q1. More information on today's announcements, including full press releases and product details, can be viewed at Sun's online press kit ( http://sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/networkcomputing05q1/ ).
