Sun Aims For A 'Smarter Enterprise'

Sun, Santa Clara, Calif., will roll out an automatic update service for Solaris, a preconfigured rack of Opteron-based servers for grid computing, and subscription-based pricing for its storage software at its NC05Q2 event in Washington, said Anil Gadre, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Sun.

Sun Update Connection, a free add-on to Solaris 10, allows customers to automatically update their network through a new "phone home" platform in the OS, Gadre said. Sun also plans to offer for-fee services through the same connection, starting this week with Learning Connection Services, which enable customers to buy education and training services.

Matt Harris, director of channels at FusionStorm, a San Francisco-based VAR and MSP, said Sun Update Connection brings Sun up to speed with similar offerings from competitors such as IBM. "Sun is bringing their services offering [on a par] with the other major players," Harris said.

Indeed, much of what the vendor has brought to market in the past several years has been aimed at catching up with rivals, which have beaten Sun in a variety of markets, including Java software, x86 servers and professional services, observers noted.

Sun also is rebundling its storage software into four separate suites that can be sold using the same per-user pricing model as its Sun Java Enterprise System. Pricing for the suites—for consolidation, business continuity, content and life-cycle management, and e-mail and document retention for compliance—will be $350 per employee per year, Gadre said.

Sun also is offering per-terabyte pricing for storage, which will vary according to the software a customer purchases, he added.