New Sun Program Targets Windows Workstations

Unveiled this week, Sun’s Solar Edge Elite Program was created to get new and current Sun resellers to take advantage of the interoperability between Sun’s Advanced Micro Devices Opteron-based products and Windows, said Bob Lewis, marketing director at Sun, Santa Clara, Calif.

Lewis said there are approximately 1,500 sales opportunities in the electrical design and mechanical engineering markets where Windows is currently being run on many non-Sun platforms such as RISC/Unix and Intel-based workstations and servers. Through the Solar Edge Elite Program, Sun’s goal is for qualified partners to sell 40,000 units into these two markets within the next 12 months, said Lewis.

Sun’s November 2003 alliance with chip maker AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif., has positioned Sun to sell its X64 product family into markets needing Windows-compatible, high-end-graphics-capable computers. The AMD chip’s ability to run 64-bit software also sets the stage for the arrival of 64-bit Windows.

Web services and horizontal database markets are also being targeted through the program, he said.

“This is about driving new revenue streams,” said Lewis.

Resellers must have two Sun-certified sales reps and two Solar Edge Elite certified system engineers on staff to be eligible for the program. An online test and application form will be available Dec. 15, with an official program launch scheduled for Jan. 4, 2005. Marketing support, lead generation, available demonstration units and other incentives are in place for Solar Edge Elite partners, according to Sun.

Sun has identified 500 sales opportunities in the electronic design market and assigned a 15,000-unit sales target to the program participants. As many as 1,000 sales opportunities exist in the mechanical engineering and analysis market, which has a 35,000-unit sales target. Additional market targets for the program include Web services computing and design market with 15,000 sales opportunities and a unit sales target of 80,000. The horizontal database market offers 20,000 sales opportunities and has a 50,000-unit target. The enterprise security market holds 15,000 sales opportunities and has a 30,000-unit sales target, according to Lewis.