SYSTEMS
Sun Microsystems Accelerates Customer Momentum in FY4Q
Financial Services, Telecommunications and Global Markets Key Growth Areas for Sun's Solaris Operating System, Sun Fire Servers, Sun StorageTek Solutions and Sun Services -- As an indication of strong customer acceptance of the new product line-up for Sun Microsystems, hundreds of global customers made key purchases during the fourth fiscal quarter of 2006. Sun scored customer wins for its most advanced product lines within strategic industries such as telecommunications and financial services, as well as broad acceptance for Sun brands globally from companies including Mansion.com (Gibraltar), Bell Canada, CarsDirect, China Telecom Guangdong Branch, FAW Toyota Motor Sales Co., Reuters, and Telstra. "Demand increased in the fourth quarter as more and more customers around the world are recognizing the value of an expanded product line from Sun, including the latest network systems running on the Solaris 10 operating system (OS)," said Don Grantham, executive vice president, Global Sales and Services, Sun Microsystems. "With the most advanced and energy efficient product line offering in Sun's history, we saw a strong product revenue increase during the quarter, with sequential growth of nearly 25 percent. As we move into the next fiscal year, our focus remains identifying and solving customer business problems with innovative technologies and open standards." 
Sun customers are looking for the right technology that has the scalability and performance to enable their businesses to grow, and over the past year Sun has continued to innovate and enhance its product line to meet and exceed those demands. Companies like Reuters, which has chosen the most advanced operating system on the planet - the Solaris 10 OS - turn to Sun for the right technology for their networks. "We're pleased to continue offering our customers better choices," said Michael Parlapiano, executive vice president of Enterprise Information Management Solutions, Reuters. "Companies utilizing RMDS 6.0 are ensured lower latency, overall greater scalability and dramatically improved performance with the Solaris 10 OS as their operating system choice." Financial Services Customers Choose Sun for Secure, High-Performance Networking One of the key growth areas for Sun continues to be the global financial services market. Due to expanding data volumes, increasing regulatory compliance requirements and continuing operational cost reduction pressures, the demand for extreme high-performance and low-latency systems has fueled sales of Sun's UltraSPARC IV+, UltraSPARC T1 and AMD Opteron based systems. Key features in Sun's flagship Solaris OS are helping lower costs for financial services customers, most of which are adopting features such as Solaris Containers, Dynamic Tracing (Dtrace), improved networking and Predictive Self Healing to significantly improve performance and reliability. Additionally, competitive pressures and renewed Mergers & Acquisition activity are accelerating the demand for key software Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) infrastructure solutions in the areas of directory services, identity management and business integration. Key wins in this area include the National Stock Exchange (NSX), which selected Sun Microsystems to create and power its new cutting-edge technology platform to help it compete with other exchanges in the U.S. and globally. The Sun build-out, based on Sun Fire SPARC - and Opteron-based servers, will have scalable capacity that will help NSX handle increasing trading volumes, as well as manage its archiving needs to comply with recent SEC regulations. "Sun is the right partner for the National Stock Exchange because of its leadership and know-how," said David Colker, CEO and president at the National Stock Exchange. "At a pivotal point in our growth, they brought to the table the right combination of products, partners and services. We're proud to have them on board with us as a partner." Sun's support and training services are also included as part of the deal. A returning customer in financial services is Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., which purchased storage, servers, services, and software from Sun Microsystems to meet current and future scalability requirements with the industry's most compelling price/performance solution for the company's Business Continuity Planning (BCP) initiative. Running the Solaris 10 OS on UltraSPARC IV+ processor-based Sun Fire servers, Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. is ensuring optimum performance and availability while keeping its IT footprint and data center costs at a minimum. Additional Sun financial services customers include France-based IXIS Corporate and Investment Bank, GlobalTech and the New York State Banking Department, among others. US Momentum Continues for Sun In the past quarter, Sun continued its momentum in the US market. In addition to customers outlined above, such as Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., the National Stock Exchange, New York State Banking, and Reuters, hundreds more US-based companies and organizations turned to Sun for their infrastructure needs. Disney Mobile has licensed Java ME technology to power new services on its newly launched, family-friendly mobile platform. By utilizing Java technology, Disney Mobile can support downloadable Java games, as well as special new services to enable family members to locate children’s phones and monitor their call usage, and send priority messages to one or all family members. Disney Mobile has also leveraged the Java platform to create an immersive user experience that allows users to customize their phone with many different Disney themes. CarsDirect, a leading multi-brand online car buying service that offers new and pre-owned automobiles and related products and services, selected Sun Microsystems services and technologies to help power the company's web site. Supported by Sun services, CarsDirect implemented the Solaris 10 OS and immediately realized a 20x improvement in performance over its legacy web servers for a fraction of the cost. The company also noted security and reliability improvements afforded by the Solaris 10 OS. Other US-based Sun customers include, AmeriVault, CedarsSinai Medical Center, Convergys, DigiTar, First Data Corporation, Fotolog, Joyent, and Wake Forest University among many others. Sun Sees Global Growth for Key Brands Sun saw significant global growth this quarter, landing several international customers for key product offerings such as the latest UltraSPARC and AMD Opteron servers, Sun's StorageTek solutions, the Solaris OS and Sun Java Enterprise System. Australian-based carrier Telstra has purchased Sun's SPARC/Solaris OS infrastructure and the Java Enterprise System as part of its IT systems transformation. Additionally, FAW Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd. chose Sun Microsystems to support a projected nearly 50 percent growth of its business. Leveraging Sun Services and UltraSPARC-based Sun Fire servers running the Solaris OS, FAW Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd. plans to increase customer and dealer satisfaction by doubling the performance of operations and ensuring 24x7 business continuity. The new system will help FAW Toyota Motor Sal es Co., Ltd. increase its dealers from 250 to 400 in the near future. Other global customers signing up for Sun's latest servers, storage technology, software and services include Bell Canada, China Telecom Guangdong Branch, Guangdong Mobile Communications (China), Integrated Telecom Company (Saudi Arabia), Mansion.com (Gibraltar), MVV Energie (Germany), the National Citizens Identities Information Center of Ministry of Public Security (China), and Telefonica Moviles Espana (Spain), among many others. Please visit its Web site for a full list of Sun's latest customers throughout the world.
Sun customers are looking for the right technology that has the scalability and performance to enable their businesses to grow, and over the past year Sun has continued to innovate and enhance its product line to meet and exceed those demands. Companies like Reuters, which has chosen the most advanced operating system on the planet - the Solaris 10 OS - turn to Sun for the right technology for their networks. "We're pleased to continue offering our customers better choices," said Michael Parlapiano, executive vice president of Enterprise Information Management Solutions, Reuters. "Companies utilizing RMDS 6.0 are ensured lower latency, overall greater scalability and dramatically improved performance with the Solaris 10 OS as their operating system choice." Financial Services Customers Choose Sun for Secure, High-Performance Networking One of the key growth areas for Sun continues to be the global financial services market. Due to expanding data volumes, increasing regulatory compliance requirements and continuing operational cost reduction pressures, the demand for extreme high-performance and low-latency systems has fueled sales of Sun's UltraSPARC IV+, UltraSPARC T1 and AMD Opteron based systems. Key features in Sun's flagship Solaris OS are helping lower costs for financial services customers, most of which are adopting features such as Solaris Containers, Dynamic Tracing (Dtrace), improved networking and Predictive Self Healing to significantly improve performance and reliability. Additionally, competitive pressures and renewed Mergers & Acquisition activity are accelerating the demand for key software Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) infrastructure solutions in the areas of directory services, identity management and business integration. Key wins in this area include the National Stock Exchange (NSX), which selected Sun Microsystems to create and power its new cutting-edge technology platform to help it compete with other exchanges in the U.S. and globally. The Sun build-out, based on Sun Fire SPARC - and Opteron-based servers, will have scalable capacity that will help NSX handle increasing trading volumes, as well as manage its archiving needs to comply with recent SEC regulations. "Sun is the right partner for the National Stock Exchange because of its leadership and know-how," said David Colker, CEO and president at the National Stock Exchange. "At a pivotal point in our growth, they brought to the table the right combination of products, partners and services. We're proud to have them on board with us as a partner." Sun's support and training services are also included as part of the deal. A returning customer in financial services is Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., which purchased storage, servers, services, and software from Sun Microsystems to meet current and future scalability requirements with the industry's most compelling price/performance solution for the company's Business Continuity Planning (BCP) initiative. Running the Solaris 10 OS on UltraSPARC IV+ processor-based Sun Fire servers, Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. is ensuring optimum performance and availability while keeping its IT footprint and data center costs at a minimum. Additional Sun financial services customers include France-based IXIS Corporate and Investment Bank, GlobalTech and the New York State Banking Department, among others. US Momentum Continues for Sun In the past quarter, Sun continued its momentum in the US market. In addition to customers outlined above, such as Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., the National Stock Exchange, New York State Banking, and Reuters, hundreds more US-based companies and organizations turned to Sun for their infrastructure needs. Disney Mobile has licensed Java ME technology to power new services on its newly launched, family-friendly mobile platform. By utilizing Java technology, Disney Mobile can support downloadable Java games, as well as special new services to enable family members to locate children’s phones and monitor their call usage, and send priority messages to one or all family members. Disney Mobile has also leveraged the Java platform to create an immersive user experience that allows users to customize their phone with many different Disney themes. CarsDirect, a leading multi-brand online car buying service that offers new and pre-owned automobiles and related products and services, selected Sun Microsystems services and technologies to help power the company's web site. Supported by Sun services, CarsDirect implemented the Solaris 10 OS and immediately realized a 20x improvement in performance over its legacy web servers for a fraction of the cost. The company also noted security and reliability improvements afforded by the Solaris 10 OS. Other US-based Sun customers include, AmeriVault, CedarsSinai Medical Center, Convergys, DigiTar, First Data Corporation, Fotolog, Joyent, and Wake Forest University among many others. Sun Sees Global Growth for Key Brands Sun saw significant global growth this quarter, landing several international customers for key product offerings such as the latest UltraSPARC and AMD Opteron servers, Sun's StorageTek solutions, the Solaris OS and Sun Java Enterprise System. Australian-based carrier Telstra has purchased Sun's SPARC/Solaris OS infrastructure and the Java Enterprise System as part of its IT systems transformation. Additionally, FAW Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd. chose Sun Microsystems to support a projected nearly 50 percent growth of its business. Leveraging Sun Services and UltraSPARC-based Sun Fire servers running the Solaris OS, FAW Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd. plans to increase customer and dealer satisfaction by doubling the performance of operations and ensuring 24x7 business continuity. The new system will help FAW Toyota Motor Sal es Co., Ltd. increase its dealers from 250 to 400 in the near future. Other global customers signing up for Sun's latest servers, storage technology, software and services include Bell Canada, China Telecom Guangdong Branch, Guangdong Mobile Communications (China), Integrated Telecom Company (Saudi Arabia), Mansion.com (Gibraltar), MVV Energie (Germany), the National Citizens Identities Information Center of Ministry of Public Security (China), and Telefonica Moviles Espana (Spain), among many others. Please visit its Web site for a full list of Sun's latest customers throughout the world.