PHYSICS

Deepening its global alliance with SAP AG, Sun Microsystems, Inc., today announced the Sun Infrastructure Solution for N1 Grid for SAP Solutions, a mix of products, technologies and services expertise to help SAP customers derive significant cost savings by further optimizing the infrastructure of its SAP solutions-based environment. Leveraging Sun's Solaris(TM) Operating System and N1(TM) Grid Container technology, dedicated servers located across the Network can be virtually pooled together to help enable customers to manage 'N' computers as '1', and curtail the practice of assigning dedicated servers for a single application. The Sun Infrastructure Solution provides customers the technology, methodology and guidance to help accelerate deployment of N1 Grid technology with reduced customization and faster time to value. "Today's announcement demonstrates Sun's commitment to take the best technology on the planet to customers in a whole new way," said Marge Breya, senior vice president of marketing, global sales operations, Sun Microsystems. "This is a powerful example of Sun's unique approach to solving customers' business challenges through innovative technology synergies with our partners." Added Breya, "The bond that ties Sun and SAP is our rock solid commitment to help SAP customers create a competitive business edge by attacking infrastructure cost and complexity, accelerating network service deployment, and increasing mobility with security." Sun's Infrastructure Solution for N1 Grid for SAP Solutions, scheduled to be available June 1, includes: -- N1 Grid technology Sun's N1 Grid technology is designed to allow multiple software applications to share a common pool of servers and storage resources. By opening up previously static relationships between hardware, applications, and the operating system, N1 Grid technology enables flexible provisioning of resources so that excess capacity can be available to power other applications in the virtualized Network. -- Solaris Operating System The newest release of Solaris 9 OS builds on Sun's commitment to help customers drive down the cost of operations while delivering higher service levels. Additionally, Solaris Express allows customers begin early usage of new, innovative enhancements coming to future releases of the Solaris OS, including N1 Grid Containers, Dynamic Tracing (DTrace) and a cryptographic framework with process rights management. Such features can help system administrators achieve higher levels of utilization and performance, and offer tighter controls for system and data security. -- Sun N1 Grid for SAP Solutions Reference Architecture The Sun N1 Grid for SAP Solutions Reference Architecture is a tested, tuned and fully documented implementation of an optimized SAP workload on the Solaris Operating System. Designed to drive out cost and complexity in the data center, the Sun N1 Grid for SAP Solutions Reference Architecture is based on Sun Fire(TM) servers, Sun StorEdge(TM) arrays, the Sun Java(TM) Enterprise System, SAP software and third-party infrastructure products. -- Proven best-practice and service methodologies Sun expert consultants provide services to address all of the project phases in Sun's methodology including feasibility planning, assessment, architecture, implementation, and ongoing management of the environment. Sun N1 Grid Workshop for SAP Solutions, Sun N1 Grid Justification Review for SAP Solutions and Sun N1 Grid Architecture Service for SAP Solutions are three new service offerings in support of today's announcement to make it easy to sell and deliver globally consistent methodology and best practices. -- SunTone(SM) audit and certification An audit and certification program to help customers ensure that their IT services meet the requirements for secure, available, and scalable services, and can also meet existing service level agreements.