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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Systems/Enterprise:
SUN MICROSYSTEMS x86 SYSTEMS HOST
WEB SITES, GRID SOLUTIONS
Sun Microsystems Inc announced that customers and partners are running
their
consumer Web sites and Grid solutions on Sun's virtually unmatched
price/performance, x86 offerings. These wins mark a broadened footprint for
Sun's growth in emerging industries such as automotive, government, life
sciences and entertainment, signaling Sun's commitment to outperform its
rivals. The new wave of x86 momentum is attributed to demand for the Sun Fire
V20z, Sun's first x86 server based on the AMD Opteron processor, Sun Fire V60x
and V65x servers, the Sun Fire B100x and B200x blade servers and the Sun Fire
V60x Compute Grid rack system.
Sun's x86 systems run the Solaris Operating System (OS) (x86 Platform
Edition), delivering enterprise-class reliability, security, availability and
manageability on x86 systems. In addition, the systems run Red Hat and SUSE
Linux, and are Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) certified. Sun also
delivers to customers new services to support entry-level, x86 systems.
Web services, utility computing, .NET, CPU harvesting and distributed
computing are just a few of the technologies that fall under the Grid
computing umbrella. Gt04 -- a premiere enterprise Grid computing conference
targeting industrial and commercial users -- will gather experts, and outline
strategies and road maps for Grid deployment. For more information, visit
www.gt04.com.
Grid computing is here!
"With the addition of AMD Opteron processors, we now have a competitive set
of
high performance x86 systems that support both Linux and Solaris x86 operating
systems," said Neil Knox, executive vice president of Volume Systems Products
at Sun Microsystems Inc. "And our customers are thrilled. They are now able to
get both SPARC/Solaris, and x86/Linux or Solaris processor-based systems from
Sun."
Postini, one of the industry's leading providers of email security for the
enterprise, has purchased Sun Fire V60x servers to run Sun Java Enterprise
System software on the Solaris x86 operating system. Postini's flagship
Perimeter Manager protects and secures the email systems of over 2,000
enterprises who require the highest level of visibility and control of their
email systems. Postini needed a reliable and scalable method of growing its
infrastructure, and chose Sun's x86 servers and software for the stability and
performance that the solution provides.
x86 For Consumer Web sites
AutoTrader.com, the world's leading on-line automotive marketplace,
purchased
Sun Fire V60x servers to support the on-line inventory of more than two
million vehicles for sale by private sellers, dealers and manufacturers.
AutoTrader.com reaches 7.5 million unique visitors monthly.
Ladbrokes.com, the betting and gaming division of Hilton Group, chose to
deploy Sun Fire V60x servers for its Sportsbook applications. Michael Boylan,
head of technology services at Ladbrokes states, "With Sun's combination of
technology and aggressive pricing of its Intel/Linux products, Sun is now a
contender in this area and can meet our Intel and Linux requirements."
The San Diego Supercomputer Center, in collaboration with San Diego State
University, is hosting a Web site that runs on a Sun Fire B1600 Blade Platform
cluster. The cluster includes Sun Fire B100x single-processor x86 blade
servers running Red Hat Linux as part of its public Web site. The site
"Maestro," allows members of the public anywhere on the Internet, to view and
manipulate the actual data beamed back to Earth from the NASA/JPL Mars rovers
and do mission planning for the rovers with the same software that NASA
uses.
x86 For Grid Computing Solutions
"Grid computing is a novel architectural approach designed to optimize
computing resources, and any substantive shift in computing strategy like this
translates into opportunity for the channel," said Scott Zahl, vice president
of Sun Business Group, GE Access. "The combination of Sun's x86 systems and
the support of Sun Services offers resellers the chance to capitalize on this
growing market."
Sun provides Gridway Computing Corporation with much of its enabling
technology, including a Grid of Sun Fire V60x servers running Red Hat Linux.
Gridway Corporation uses the systems for its utility computing service for
chip designers.
The Sun Fire V60x Compute Grid rack system, using Sun Grid Engine software,
can help customers improve resource utilization by up to 90 percent. The
Delaware Biotechnology Institute purchased multiple Sun Fire V60x servers as
part of project "BioWolf," the institute's new Grid Computing infrastructure.
Sun created a 128 dual-node Compute Grid rack system, which was recently
ranked among the 30 most powerful academic supercomputers in the United
States. Infineon is also using the Sun Fire V60x Compute Grid rack system.
x86 Optimized With AMD Opteron Processors
The Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology at the University of
Leeds
in the UK will host one of the first HPTC cluster implementations, using the
Sun Fire V20z server. The Sun Fire V20z server features dual AMD Opteron
processors, which feature simultaneous 32-bit and 64-bit computing. The
servers are capable of running enterprise-class Solaris OS (x86 Platform
Edition) as well as Red Hat and SUSE Linux. The Sun Fire V20z server has been
revenue released, and Sun has shipped hundreds of Sun Fire V20z servers to
early access customers.
Vernon Turner, group vice president of Global Enterprise Server Solutions
at
IDC stated, "Sun has increased its footprint in the x86 marketplace by adding
AMD Opteron processor -- and Intel Xeon processor-based servers to its product
portfolio. Offering Solaris x86, Red Hat and SUSE Linux operating systems
along with its new X86 server line, Sun is able to accommodate a wider set of
workloads in the high growth volume server marketplace."
Sun continues to focus on the channel and resellers, and has received
positive
feedback from channel partners and resellers including Moca, GE Access and
Tech Data, who have expressed tremendous interest in shipping the Sun Fire
V20z servers in volume.
"The Sun Fire V20z server expands Tech Data's comprehensive product
offering
and solution options available to resellers serving the small-to-medium sized
business (SMB) market," says Pete Peterson, Tech Data's vice president of
Software and Systems Product Marketing. "Through our TechSelect program, an
alliance of established value-added resellers (VARs) focused on the SMB
market, Tech Data is well positioned to quickly and efficiently reach Sun's
target market for the Sun Fire V20z server."
"We are committed to offering our customers and partners a choice of
architectures for massive horizontal scaling. Today we are delivering x86
systems with industry leading price/performance," Knox added, "and you can
expect to see us roll out additional AMD Opteron processor-based systems
throughout this calendar year."
Sun Services For x86
Sun also announced aggressively priced service offerings for customers and
channel partners in order to help customers architect, implement and manage
x86 solutions. These new services build on Sun's existing services for x86,
which include customized system builds, Grid implementation services and Linux
learning solutions. Sun also offers a range of software support offerings for
both Solaris x86 and Linux operating systems, with standard and premium
services for the Solaris operating system priced at, or below comparable Linux
offerings. Sun delivers the levels of service that Sun customers and channel
partners have come to expect with our UltraSPARC processor-based
platforms.
The new services, called Sun Hardware Only Support, are initially targeted
at
the Sun Fire V20z, Sun Fire V60x and Sun Fire V65x servers, and will be
extended to other entry-level products. The new services offer a choice of
options to best meet customers needs including next business day service, same
business day service, four hours response, and seven days a week, 24 hours a
day service, four hours response.
If onsite service is deemed necessary, Sun can offer to send an engineer
within the response times indicated. Sun also offers 24/7 access to its Online
Support Center and its SunSolve program which includes an Online Knowledge
Database, the same database used by Sun engineers, as well as other technical
and operational management resources.
About Sun Microsystems Inc
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The
Computer" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems Inc 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 sun.com/.
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