APPLICATIONS

Sun Microsystems and Topspin Communications today announced they will be expanding their alliance to include support for Solaris, Linux and Windows-based Operating Systems for the grid and utility computing market. Under terms of the agreement, Sun and Topspin will offer integrated utility computing solutions that include Topspin's intelligent fabric products and Sun's AMD Opteron-based systems. The solution links servers together into high performance grids, virtualizes network and storage connectivity, and provisions applications on demand. The relationship with Topspin also benefits Sun's alliance partner EDS. Sun is an inaugural member of the recently announced EDS Agility Alliance and is EDS' preferred partner for enterprise-wide network computing, outsourcing environments, and utility based computing. Together, Sun and EDS are working to deliver to clients the benefits of lower total cost of ownership through virtualization technology and utility computing solutions. "Sun's selection of Topspin brings EDS a cost-effective, standards-based solution that offers increased performance," said Larry Lozon, vice president, EDS Hosting Services. In March 2003, Sun and Topspin announced an OEM relationship. Today's announcement extends that relationship beyond high performance computing and database clusters into mainstream enterprise grids and utility data centers. The new solution will offer Topspin's InfiniBand-based server switch platforms, host adapters, and Vframe software, with Sun Fire V20Z and V40Z server platforms. "Our relationship with Topspin enhances our ability to provide state-of-the art solutions for utility and grid computing," said John Fowler, executive vice president, Network Systems Group at Sun. "Sun is excited about the extreme performance that Infiniband provides data center servers and is committed to working with leaders like Topspin to deliver it." "We are working closely with Sun to give our customers the benefits of grid computing," said Stu Aaron, vice president of marketing at Topspin. "The economic advantages of our combined solutions make it an easy decision for customers to deploy grid or utility computing in their data center."