ACADEMIA

SANTA CLARA, CA -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today continued its leadership in grid computing by extending its vision for an open, enterprise grid architecture with the introduction of Sun(TM) Grid Engine, Enterprise Edition 5.3 software. Designed to provide the growing enterprise grid market with higher levels of control and flexibility in the management of grid resources, Sun Grid Engine, Enterprise Edition 5.3 software builds on the explosive growth of Sun Grid Engine software, which today powers more than 5,000 grids worldwide. "We continue to deliver on our promise that the network is the computer. Sun's grid technologies will be key components of the N1 architecture and our vision to virtualize the data center and maximize our customers' return on investments," said Scott McNealy, Chairman and CEO of Sun Microsystems. "While there's been a lot of talk about grid computing lately, Sun is actually delivering real products and solutions for the enterprise today. Businesses want more for the buck they're spending today, and more for the buck they spent last week. Sun's grid stack is paying off in spades for our customers." "Sun has been a leading player in the creation of the virtual environment," said Dan Kusnetzky, vice president of system software research for IDC. "Sun's Grid computing announcement is the most recent in a series of moves Sun has made to provide its customers with a highly scalable grid computing architecture. Sun's roadmap for future technology appears to offer Sun the opportunity to continue in its leadership role." Sun is also tracking two rising trends in the market for Sun-based grids. With nearly 70 new grids each week, the adoption rate of grids powered by Sun Grid Engine software has increased by approximately 20 percent during the past year, according to market research completed in May 2002 by Walker Information, Inc. Additionally, the size of individual grids has increased nine percent over the same time period. Sun's open approach to grid computing further removes adoption barriers for heterogeneous environments. As a result, market research confirmed that half of Sun Grid Engine software-based grids are on the Solaris(TM) platform, 25 percent are on the Linux platform, and 25 percent are mixed environments. New Software Extends Sun's Vision for Enterprise Grid Architecture The new Enterprise Edition of Sun Grid Engine software addresses the next evolutionary step for grid computing -- enterprise grids. Providing higher levels of control and flexibility, Sun Grid Engine, Enterprise Edition 5.3 software incorporates policy management functions to allow multiple groups to easily share available compute resources according to corporate-set goals. More than half of Sun's current grid customers have stated a need to support multiple projects and departments within their enterprises. Sun's new software enables the easy management of expanded grids as well as increased control over those resources, allowing for the reallocation of a grid's entire compute resources on the fly to meet critical corporate needs as they change. Putting Sun further ahead of other system vendors, Sun Microsystems also offers a complete, integratable stack of software offerings, such as Sun ClusterTools(TM) and Sun(TM) Management Center, that complement its grid products to provide additional infrastructure management capabilities. Next week, demonstrations of Sun Grid Engine, Enterprise Edition software and grid computing architectures will be held at Toronto's BIO 2002 conference for life sciences customers as well as for electronic design customers at the Design Automation Conference in New Orleans. Sun Promotes Open, Standards-Based Development Sun Grid Engine software has been integrated with the Globus toolkit technology since 1999, allowing for the globalization of corporate grids. Sun has built a strong relationship with Globus and supports its current activities to establish industry standards related to grid computing, including the proposed Open Grid Services Architecture Standard (OGSA). Sun is an active participant in the Global Grid Forum and was a key founder of the Distributed Resource Management Application API working group (DRMAA), an industry group that is currently driving the development of standards to simplify grid adoption and use. Additionally, the Sun-sponsored Grid Engine Open Source Project was launched in July 2001 to increase the adoption of the grid computing model. The project, for which Sun contributed more than 500,000 lines of source code, has helped elevate the availability of grid computing technologies worldwide. For more information about the Grid Engine Open Source Project, go to www.gridengine.sunsource.net. Availability and Support Sun Grid Engine, Enterprise Edition 5.3 software is available today. New software license fees range from $20,000 U.S. list price for up to 50 CPUs, to $80,000 for up to 2,000 CPUs. Sun Enterprise Services(SM) are available to provide full product support, training and installation. Worldwide, more than 30 Sun partners are already certified to implement Sun Grid Engine software-based grid environments. For more information about products and services, go to http://www.sun.com/presskits/sgeee . Sun in Grid Computing Sun Microsystems established itself as a leading architect for grid computing in July 2000 with the acquisition of GRIDware, quickly followed by the launch of Sun's resource management software, Sun Grid Engine. Today, Sun's complete stack of grid computing technologies, its vision for the evolutionary development of grids -- from cluster to enterprise to global grids -- and its commitment to open, standards-based technologies are fundamental to its strategy to promote and grow grid computing worldwide. Sun has been instrumental in making grid computing mainstream, driving adoption by making Sun Grid Engine software for the Solaris Operating Environment and Linux platforms available as free downloads. In July 2001, Sun was the first systems vendor to place key grid computing technology into open source via the Grid Engine Project at www.gridengine.sunsource.net. And Sun has worked with the Global Grid Forum to help establish critical standards for the industry, including The Distributed Resource Management Application API standard (DRMAA). Sun Grid Engine and Sun Grid Engine, Enterprise Edition software power more than 5,000 cluster and enterprise grids worldwide today, with nearly 70 new grid deployments each week. For more information, go to http://www.sun.com/grid .