Sun Micro Unveils New Servers, Data-Storage Gear

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Sun Micro Unveils New Servers, Data-Storage Gear



SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Network computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. announced on Tuesday new entry-level servers and data-storage equipment aimed at the mid-market, in its latest quarterly release of new products and services.




   

Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq:SUNW - news) said that the Sun Fire V210, which starts at $2,995, is suitable for use in dishing up Web pages and technical computing farms. The Sun Fire V240, which starts at $3,495, is for use in racks of other servers at corporate data centers where reliability is key. Both are available later this month.


Sun also announced two new products targeted at the mid-range of the storage market and principally at rival Hewlett-Packard Co (NYSE:HPQ - news)., said Mark Tolliver, Sun's executive vice president of marketing and strategy and chief strategy officer.


The StorEdge 6120 array, which costs $24,300 and up, is a modular array that can grow into a complete storage system, Sun said, while the StorEdge 6320 system is a complete storage system that can be managed from a single console. It starts at $67,600 and both products will be available later this month.


In February, Sun staged another large product announcement, the first in its plan to announce products, services and one a quarter, rather than in dribs and drabs.


The firm said that was an attempt to reduce confusion among customers and to bolster its belief that high-tech customers care more about the total package of servers, software and networking gear than the elemental pieces.


Sun, along with rivals International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) and HP, is working to make servers much more efficient, ultimately enabling firms to spend less on hardware by getting more out of what they purchase, or by consolidating a large number of servers onto fewer, more powerful ones, or via clusters of cheap boxes.


Companies are wanting to automate tasks such as provisioning storage and computer power by knitting together a network into a single "virtual" machine rather than a patchwork of separate parts.


Sun, which makes computers that manage networks, dubs its software effort to automate compute, N1, while HP calls its own initiative "adaptive infrastructure, and IBM calls its effort "on-demand computing."


Sun's latest N1 offering announced on Tuesday is what it calls N1 Data Platform, which is a combination of switches that tie together storage pools, along with software that lets customers allocate their storage resources, on the fly, when needed.


Sun's N1 Data Platform is an outgrowth of Sun's purchase in October 2002 of closely held Pirus Networks, which was a maker of switches that tie together pools of data in data centers with storage products from different manufacturers.


Also on Tuesday, Sun said it was taking a plunge for the first time into the managed services portion of the computer services market.


"This is really the first time we have turned this into a professional services program and offered it," Tolliver said. "The demand for this has gone up enough that we think it's time to offer this as a formal part of our program."


Under the program, Sun employees would remain at customers beyond the installation of new systems and manage not only Sun components, but those of rival vendors as well, on an ongoing basis, at variable prices.


"Typically in the past we'd take a limited time engagement to get it built and hand over the keys," Tolliver said. "Now we're saying we'll still do that, but, if you prefer, we'll make arrangements to have people stay with you to make sure everything is tuned and operating properly."


Both IBM, the biggest computer-services organization, HP, as well as Electronic Data Systems Corp. (NYSE:EDS - news) have offered managed services, but in IBM's case, it will also offer to buy a customer's hardware and move its employees on its payroll, in a pure outsourcing deal.


"There is no sense of we'll buy you out of that business and run it out of Sun data centers," Tolliver said. "That's not what we're doing here."