Demanding Customers Choose Sun for Ultra-Reliable and Secure Network Computing Infrastructure [October 19, 2004]

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct 19, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- From the world's largest betting exchange to one of the world's largest Java-based banking applications, demanding customers are choosing Sun. For the past 20 years Sun has engineered security and reliability into its suite of network computing technologies giving it an edge wherever customers rely heavily on their technology -- from the heart of the data center to the mobile handset. Today Sun announced 13 new customer wins with enterprises as demanding as financial services, scientific research, telecommunications and healthcare. All use a variety of Sun technologies including the Solaris(TM) 10 Operating System, available on both SPARC(R) and AMD Opteron architecture, delivering new features such as Linux interoperability and multiple platforms support, including Dell, HP and IBM.

The global customers choosing Sun include Betfair UK, Fiducia IT AG, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Infogroup, IP Applications, Institute of Technical Education (ITE), Major League Baseball, National Healthcare Services (UK), Orange SA, Rakuten, Telecom New Zealand, University of Texas at Austin and Western Michigan University.

"Sun's commitment to innovation, to the Solaris operating system across multiple architectures, and to protecting customer choice through innovation and price/performance, continue to win us more customers, and more opportunity," said Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer of Sun Microsystems. "These customers are evidence of that success, and point toward the growing opportunity we see across the globe."

"We chose Sun because we knew it was able to meet our demanding timescales and deliver the service as promised," said Rorie Devine, Betfair UK's director of infrastructure. "We are seeing constant growth at Betfair.com, and with a busy sporting summer ahead it was imperative that the technologies were in place to manage the needs of our growing online community."

A snapshot of the key wins include:

Betfair UK (a division of Sporting Exchange Limited)

Betfair.com has purchased Sun hardware and storage systems for both of its UK processing centres. The hardware infrastructure will ensure that Betfair.com can continue running seamlessly from either location if one of the centres was to become unavailable.

Fiducia IT AG

JBF is one of the largest Java technology-based banking applications worldwide. JBF will support up to 120,000 desktops in the branches of the co- operative banks in Germany. It runs on more than 400 Sun servers.

Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL)

Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, a US Department of Energy Laboratory, has chosen Sun Microsystems for its Generation IV nuclear reactor research project. The solution includes 230 Sun Fire(TM) V20z servers powered by AMD Opteron processors, more than 12 terabytes of Sun StorEdge(TM) 6320 storage, the Solaris 9 Operating System, Sun Java Enterprise System (Java ES) and Java development software, Sun Grid Engine Enterprise Edition, Sun StorEdge SAM-FS, Sun's StarOffice(TM) 7.0 office productivity platform, as well as advanced on-site training and support from Sun's Services division. By using Solaris 10 OS with N1(TM) Grid Containers, Sun Grid Engine Enterprise Edition and Java ES, INEEL will create a software environment where researchers can collaborate securely and schedule their work on the AMD Opteron processor-based grid computing cluster solution. This solution will allow INEEL to work on technical models that are 20-80 times larger than their current SPARC/SGI/CRAY/x86 environment. The cluster's full-throttle computing power ranks the INEEL datacenter as one of the world's top 150 supercomputing sites.

Infogroup

Mainframe rehosting for ATM and Credit Card application for Central Italian banks.

IP Applications

Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc. has signed a new multi-server agreement with Canada's IP Applications, a provider of secure Internet services outsourcing for companies. IP Applications is completely upgrading their Intel-based data center to a Solaris OS-based center, using upwards of 30 AMD Opteron powered Sun Fire V20z servers. This upgrade will increase IP Applications' horizontal scalability and provide increased speed and 24 x 7 x 365 reliability as demanded by their customers for services such as web-based provisioning, authentication, email and web hosting. IP Applications also intends to upgrade to Solaris 10 OS upon its release for optimized resource utilization and enterprise-class performance.

Institute of Technical Education (ITE)

A unique combination of hardware and software with components of Java ES. ITE, the premier post-secondary education institution in Singapore, is setting up a new regional campus. ITE further expands its relationship with Sun. Sun Java ES is at the heart of ITE's datacenter. ITE is currently using Java ES for its SSO, e-learning services, and intends to leverage more of the Java ES suite (IDM, portal) within the coming year.

Major League Baseball

Located in the New York metropolitan area, MLB Advanced Media, LP (MLBAM) -- the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball -- is working with Sun to architect and build next-generation data centers and a digital asset management solution to power MLB.com. The new data center platform infrastructure will include Sun Fire V210, V240, 4800 and 15K servers to support enhanced video content such as pitch-by-pitch view of games, pre- and post-game shows, analysis, and enhanced search and on-demand capabilities for fans, as well as archives of every "at bat" to aid in player development. In addition, MLBAM will leverage Sun's Digital Asset Management Reference Architecture, Sun Fire V480 servers and the Sun StorEdge L700 Tape Library to deliver real-time location and distribution of highlights that can easily be indexed by players and events. MLBAM has also purchased 250 licenses of the Java ES, and the Solaris OS. The new data centers will be supported with a comprehensive portfolio of advanced and preventive services, that include ongoing monitoring and management solution. MLB.com currently delivers as many as 15 live games daily in-season through MLB.TV and more than 6,000 audio streamed games each year. Plus, more than 44 million minutes of streaming media, 2,430 full-length games, and more than 650 million visitors in 2003. In addition, MLB.com and the 30 individual team sites registered over 4 billion page views in 2003. In March 2004, MLBAM extended its technology alliance with Sun for an additional two years, maintaining Sun as their official technology provider.

National Healthcare Services (UK)

As part of the National Programme for IT, prime-contracted by BT, Sun will be providing the software, primarily Sun's Java ES, Services, Computer Systems and Storage Systems to enable a nationally accessible patient record database and transactional messaging service. Sun's Java Directory, Portal and Application server software will join existing Sun messaging technology deployed within the NHS email system.

Orange SA

Orange SA, the mobile arm of the France Telecom Group, has selected the Java ES to replace its current software infrastructure for its European operations encompassing 22,000 employees in France, the UK, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Slovakia. Orange is one of the world's leading mobile operators and has over 50 million customers with operations in 19 countries in Europe and beyond. The Java ES will allow Orange to significantly reduce its European operating costs by lowering its maintenance and development costs, while simplifying its software licensing structure. Orange is planning a three-year phased roll out of the Java ES.

Rakuten

Rakuten, one of the largest electronic malls in Japan with well over 8,900 electronic shops and 400 million access per month, recently performed a painless migration to Sun Fire E25Ks in only one and half months, adding a range of advanced Sun servers to achieve greater scalability and flexibility in service. Now faced with a surge in transaction volumes due to the company's enormous growth, the company reinforced these system with a range of new Sun servers including the Sun Fire E25Ks, Sun Fire V440s, over 50 Sun Fire V210s and several Sun Fire V120s to handle a staggering 1.5 million mission-critical transactions per month.

Telecom New Zealand

"Sun's integrated approach to delivering core infrastructure software as one working entity on a predictable basis provided us with a compelling solution for our sophisticated online delivery environment. Being able to reduce the cost and complexity associated with managing the infrastructure software to meet the needs of our business critical online delivery environment will be essential to rapidly delivering new services to our customers," said Telecom's General Manager Technology Strategy & Capability, Greg Patchell.

University of Texas at Austin -- Texas Advanced Computing Center

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas at Austin and Sun Microsystems, Inc. recently announced that Maverick, a new UltraSPARC(R)-based supercomputer with 3D visualization capability, would go live on the National Science Foundation's TeraGrid to provide compute power, storage resources and visualization to researchers, scientists and engineers across the country. Built to accelerate large-scale data analysis and remote terascale visualization for time-critical problems like weather prediction, Maverick's unique configuration makes it one-of-a-kind in the world.

Western Michigan University

Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan turned to Sun Microsystems, Inc. for an integrated messaging, directory and calendar solution, with integrated identity and access management services to support its 32,000 students, faculty and staff. Western Michigan University will be deploying the Java ES, including Messaging Server, Calendar Server, and Directory Server as well as the Sun Java System Identity Manager and the Sun Java System Access Manager. The new platform infrastructure will supplement an existing Sun platform consisting of Sun Fire 280R, Sun Fire V120, Sun Fire V240, Sun Fire V480, and Sun Fire V880 servers running the Solaris 9 OS. The complete Sun solution provides the University with an open standards, integrated network to provide secure and scalable access, user provisioning and identity synchronization for university correspondence. Sun Services provided Western Michigan University with Consulting and Installation services for its Sun deployment to ensure the early stage of its product lifecycle go smoothly. By consolidating its software support contracts to a SunSpectrum(SM) Silver Support agreement for its software solution, the University has reduced the complexity of its IT infrastructure, and can now rely on a single source for all infrastructure maintenance and support.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer(TM)" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (SUNW) 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

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Sun Fire, Solaris, Java, N1, Sun Spectrum 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 US and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Aaron Cohen
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
(415) 294-4207
aaron.cohen@sun.com

May Petry
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
650-786-0034
may.petry@sun.com

SOURCE Sun Microsystems, Inc.