Sun Outlines Blade Server Road Map, Program Strategy

The system maker initially will target the Web server, firewall and server stack market segments with the line. The second round of blade server rollouts will occur in 2004 and will focus on the transaction processing segment, they said.

Colin Fowles, director of Sun's blade business team, said the company was embarking on a strategy that focused less on positioning the servers as a point product and more on ensuring they are part of a total solution. "[The blade server is not a point product," he said. "This is part of a framework."

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Sun is expanding its current offering, which includes its Blade 1000 Server.

Leading up to the launch, Sun plans to roll out programs for solution providers and developers to help spark applications that take advantage of the servers' heterogeneous computing, system management framework and other features, Sun executives said. The company refers to this group as a "Sun Blade Solutions community."

"We'll see a lot of product energy in the second half," Fowles said.

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The blade market could reach $3.7 billion by 2005, according to researcher IDC. Some solution providers said they are already seeing evidence indicating that number could be met.

Although Sun has had a small presence in the server blade market with its telco-focused product line, it has been quieter than its competition. Compaq and Hewlett-Packard both introduced blade servers late last year, and in late January the two started shipping products. The Compaq Quickblade line fits up to 20 servers in 3U of rack space, while the HP line, which is focused at the carrier-grade market, fits 24 blades in 6U of space.

At a meeting with financial analysts last week, HP Computing President Duane Zitzner showed off several HP blade servers.

"What I'm seeing right now is a very, very strong blade [market," said George Seldin, president of Data-lease, a Placentia, Calif.-based solution provider.

Customers that are most receptive to blade servers already have other Sun servers installed and are looking to "enhance what they already have," he said. Seldin said he hopes to see Sun's blade road map come in on schedule, given the market potential.