SANTA CLARA, CA -- More than 500,000,000 lines of COBOL code, in 300 different enterprises, have been moved off costly mainframes using Sun Microsystems Inc.'s (Nasdaq: SUNW) mainframe rehosting software. Sun, in conjunction with systems integrators and channel partners around the world, has helped companies and institutions in a wide range of industries, including Affina, CedCamera and Ingegneria Sistemi Elaborazione Dati, S.p.A. (ISED), increase their flexibility, modernize their IT infrastructures and reduce costs by up to 70 percent. The high cost of mainframe operating systems, applications and hardware, abetted by IBM's monopoly in the market, was the impetus for phase two of Sun's Project "Blue Away" initiative announced last month targeting midrange capacity mainframes. A key component of that program, Sun's Mainframe Transaction Processing (MTP) and Mainframe Batch Manager (MBM) software helps enable customers to run existing mainframe CICS, COBOL and batch applications -- such as those commonly found in commercial banking and insurance, manufacturing, retail and government -- virtually unmodified in a contemporary computing environment. Sun's cost-effective Sun Fire(TM) and Sun Enterprise(TM) servers, combined with its mainframe rehosting software, allow customers to maintain the skill sets of their IT staff, saving them considerable time and expense and providing them with a strong alternative to their legacy mainframe infrastructures. "We've talked to hundreds of mainframe customers and their greatest pain comes from paying exorbitant monthly bills for their mainframe software. With Sun's solution, customers only pay a one-time fee," said Don Whitehead, director, mainframe rehosting, Sun Microsystems. "The numerous success stories we've logged and the sheer amount of COBOL code we've already rehosted are proof that rehosting to Sun servers yields greater cost savings and improves data center functionality." "We've teamed up with Sun's mainframe rehosting group to assist customers who are interested in migrating to new and cost-effective open platforms while maximizing their existing IT investments," added Tony Hill, chairman and chief executive officer of Micro Focus, the industry leader in enterprise development solutions for legacy systems. "Micro Focus Server Express technology is an integral component of Sun's rehosting package and together they provide a robust, high performance environment for mainframe rehosting." Based on its innovative mainframe rehosting technology, Sun's rehosting program has effectively modernized the IT environments and lowered the total cost of ownership in the following enterprise data centers: Affina, The Customer Relationship Company -- As a call center facility handling more than 20 million telephone calls from consumers each year, Affina requires a highly reliable IT infrastructure to process call traffic without fail. Using Sun MTP software to rehost its CICS mainframe environment, Affina has reduced batch processing time by 30 percent and cut back on staffing needs by 75 percent. Prior to going to the Sun MTP solution, Affina outsourced its mainframe. The improvements have resulted in a savings of $100,000 per month on overall IT expenditures. CedCamera -- As the information services arm of the Milan, Italy Chamber of Commerce, CedCamera requires both a cost-effective and efficient IT infrastructure. When the organization's mainframes became too expensive to maintain, they turned to Sun. By running Sun's MTP software on an Enterprise 3500 server, CedCamera has realized annual savings of 70 percent. ISED -- By migrating existing legacy applications from a mainframe system to a Sun Enterprise 10000 server, ISED has increased performance, reduced operations costs, and established a Web-based information network that enables the delivery of improved IT services to its customers in the government, education, health care, pharmaceutical and environmental markets. Response times have been reduced by one-third and batch processing, which took up to 10 hours on the mainframe, can now be completed in one hour. Mainframe Rehosting Partner Program In order to provide customers with the most comprehensive mainframe rehosting solutions, Sun has developed a partner program specifically designed to meet the needs of mainframe rehosting projects. The following systems integrators and channel partners have been certified through Sun's rigorous certification program: Telus Canada, Amdahl Canada, Nipon Steel Solution (NSS Japan), NEC Japan, CTC Japan, Hitachi Software (HSK) Japan, DMR/Fujitsu Australia, Amdahl UK, Iter Italy, T-Systems Brasil, TTI Argentina, Comware Ecuador.