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Sun Enhances Preventive Services With New Partner Capabilities and System-Level Connected Services

Posted on: Tuesday, 1 February 2005, 18:00 CST

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- During its quarterly Network Computing '05 (NC05Q1) launch today, Sun Microsystems, Inc. expanded its Sun(SM) Preventive Services (SPS) offerings with new partner capabilities and system-level connected services. The subscription-based services for identifying and remediating potential IT issues before they can affect down time will now be available from Sun iForce(SM) partners in addition to directly from Sun. Through Sun Preventive Services, new Sun Update Connection services and enhanced Sun Net Connect services, customers can proactively plan and manage for a healthy data center.

Additionally, a pivotal component of Sun's services portfolio comes from the recently completed acquisition of SevenSpace. This acquisition will enable Sun to further expand Sun Services to include support for heterogeneous environments, including Linux, Windows, HP-UX and IBM AIX.

While Sun Preventive Services take into account the people, processes and entire data center environment, the new Sun Update Connection and Sun Net Connect services bring the value of prevention to the system level, reaching software developers and system administrators. These system-level connected services enable and support the subscription plans for the Solaris(TM) 10 Operating System (OS), a new and flexible way to purchase Solaris 10 services. The subscription-based services provide customers and partners with choice and flexibility depending on the level of support and service they require.

"We're making aggressive moves to introduce a wide range of new services that help our customers simplify the acquisition and management of their IT infrastructure needs," said Marissa Peterson, executive vice president, Services at Sun. "With Sun Preventive Services and new heterogeneous support offerings, Sun and its partners can help customers further reduce risk, improve data center health and achieve ongoing operational excellence."

"Sun is taking an innovative, holistic approach to services with its new Sun Preventive Services package by creating a flexible subscription-based model that encompasses all of its various services offerings," said Frances Draper, vice president, Sun Business Group at Access Distribution, a General Electric company and a leading value-added distributor of complex computing solutions. "The benefits to customers are far-reaching. By allowing its channel partners to take this offering to market, Sun is expanding the intellectual capital available to deliver this service and the scope of the partners' reach within the end-user customer. We're very enthusiastic about offering the Sun Preventive Services package to our reseller partners."

Broader Sun Preventive Services

Sun Preventive Services deliver cost savings to customers by identifying and fixing problems before they cause downtime. SPS rewards good data center health, giving customers a substantial discount on long-term service subscription costs when they achieve and sustain target levels of improvement. This common sense approach is based on a methodology of "assess, improve, measure" to give customers a clear picture of their current data center health, letting them track their progress and continually improve operational efficiencies.

Sun Preventive Services expands its reach and depth by enabling Sun iForce partners to sell and deliver this industry-unique service to a broader market. This initiative will reach more potential customers by adding new sales and service delivery channels. It enables Sun to combine its intellectual capital with partner intellectual capital to better address specific customer requirements. Additionally, it helps iForce partners move from a product-centered service offering to a customer-centric engagement.

"While Sun has long been known as a top innovator in hardware and software, it is rapidly establishing itself as the premier innovator in IT services," said Rich Severa, president, MOCA Division at Arrow Electronics Inc., a leading Sun Microsystems channel development provider. "Sun Preventive Services offers a unique and novel approach to helping our partners keep their customers' data centers healthy and avoid the punitive costs of downtime."

Morse GmbH, one of Germany's leading technology integrators and an iForce partner, will offer Sun Preventive Services to its customers. "Sun Preventive Services fits perfectly with Morse's strategy of aligning IT services more closely to our customers' business needs and investing in services that reduce the cost and difficulty of IT systems management," said Michael Kuehnl, Germany country manager at Morse.

SevenSpace Technology Brings Support for Heterogeneous Environments

The recently completed acquisition of SevenSpace helps Sun deliver on its roadmap for Sun Preventive Services, which later this year will be extended to provide comprehensive services for heterogeneous environments. This acquisition is a milestone of Sun's progress in delivering upon Sun Services' strategy to simplify offerings and address real-world business needs with automation and knowledge services. New capabilities via SevenSpace include remote system monitoring and management with high levels of operational efficiency and committed service levels.

Centralized Automatic Updates Save Time and Money

Sun also announced Sun Update Connection services, an intelligent software update service for Solaris systems. Sun Update Connection services help customers reduce the risk, complexity and expense of software updates. It provides automated access to security fixes, bug fixes and feature updates for Sun software - including the Solaris OS, Sun Java(TM) Desktop System and Sun Java Enterprise System - helping to prevent problems before they occur.

Sun Update Connection services include two key offerings:

-- Sun Update Manager -- a single-system, feature-rich client for local updates, available at no charge. The service features desktop notifications, point-and-click updating and a command-line interface.

-- Sun Update Connection System Edition -- a Sun-hosted portal that allows administrators to access and deploy updates to multiple systems from a centralized location. It provides a browser-based user interface enabling summary views of managed systems, remote update deployment, notifications and local caching for bandwidth preservation. Sun Update Connection System Edition is offered on a subscription basis.

Sun Net Connect - Remote Servicing Drives Uptime and Availability

Sun also announced the release of Sun Net Connect services, which provide remote servicing for faster diagnosis and resolution of problems. Sun Net Connect is an integrated set of online system management services for Sun SPARC(R) processor-based systems that help customers improve uptime and reduce system management costs. Available via a portal interface, the services proactively optimize system configuration for best performance, help customers keep their systems secure with the latest patches and automatically provide notification of system events to greatly reduce the likelihood of unplanned system downtime.

Net Connect augments the delivery of Sun Preventive Services, acting as the telemetry connection between the customer, Sun and iForce partners. New capabilities of Net Connect services include:

-- Remote service access -- enables customer-initiated remote servicing to resolve problems faster and ensure higher uptime. Allows customers to provide Sun Support Center personnel direct access to their systems for problem diagnosis, troubleshooting and remediation.

-- Enhanced security powered by 168-bit data encryption -- enables a level of security that meets the stringent standards of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

-- Better control and faster deployment of patches within the enterprise -- Sun Control Station CC Edition software provides a central point for customers to intelligently manage their data connection to Sun for better control and reduced data transmission. Provides a local patch-staging repository for control of approved, tested patches inside the customer's IT environment.

More information on Sun Preventive Services is available at http://sun.com/preventive. More information on Sun Update Connection is available at http://sun.com/service/sunupdate .

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/ ).

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer(TM)" -- 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 http://sun.com/ .

NOTE: Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Solaris, Java, iForce 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.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Kim Evans

Sun Microsystems, Inc.,

415-762-2270

kimberly.evans@sun.com

Leslie Llewellyn

Alexander Ogilvy PR for Sun Microsystems Inc.

(415) 677-2733

leslie.llewellyn@ogilvypr.com

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

CONTACT: Kim Evans of Sun Microsystems, Inc., +1-415-762-2270, orkimberly.evans@sun.com, or Leslie Llewellyn of Alexander Ogilvy PR,+1-415-677-2733, or leslie.llewellyn@ogilvypr.com, for Sun Microsystems Inc,or allpress@sun.com, +1-650-786-7737

Web site: http://sun.com/

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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